Supreme Court tosses out an appeal against COI probing Jayalalithaa’s demise

The Supreme Court of India tossed out an appeal filed with it against the High Court of Madras’ order quashing a petition against the setting up of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to probe the mystery behind the suspicious demise of former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa in December last year.

The Govt. of Tamil Nadu set up the COI headed by Justice (Retd.) Arumuga Swamy to look into complaints of ‘suspicion/mystery’ behind the demise of ‘Puratchithalaivi’ Jayalalithaa, who was taken ‘care of’ by her former aide Sasikala who apparently didn’t allow any Govt. official, MLA, MP or Ministers of the State Cabinet to have a close look at Jayalalithaa during her 75 days of hospitalization at Apollo Hospitals.

The COI has been directed to submit a detailed report within three months.  Joseph of Chennai had earlier filed a petition with the High Court of Madras reuesting it to disband the COI as it had not been set up in a proper manner. “Such a Commission of Inquiry should only have been convened after convening a session of the State Legislative Assembly,” Joseph had stated in his petition.

After his petition was dismissed by the High Court, Joseph preferred an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the High Court of Madras.  Taking up his appeal, the Supreme Court quashed it stating that there was no need to interrogate his appeal now that a COI had been set up to probe Jayalalithaa’s demise.