More recently, Jayalalithaa got sweet revenge. On October 1, when the ruling DMK and allies observed a hunger strike on the Sethusamudram issue, the state machinery came to a standstill making a mockery of the government’s claim that it had given up on the bandh following the Supreme Court order. This prompted Justice B.N. Agarwal to pass strong oral strictures even carrying suggestions of dismissal. Justice Agarwal’s scathing observations are sure to resonate in street corners during the next elections in Tamil Nadu.

There have been other occasions too when court observations became political fodder. In last year’s assembly election, DMK Chief Karunanidhi repeatedly read from newspaper articles on the Madras High Court verdict upholding an economic offences court order declining to discharge income tax cases against Jayalalithaa and her friend, Sasikala Natarajan. Karunanidhi, quoting liberally the judge’s observations, pointed out that Jayalalithaa as CM, had “failed to act as a role model for people to follow” by not filing her income tax for the year 1993-94. When she did not reply to Income Tax Department summons, the latter moved the Supreme Court, which observed that “Jayalalithaa was making a mockery of the judicial process”. It was this that Karunanidhi happily highlighted.

While Subramanian Swamy popularised the idea of leaders going to court against their opponents, it was the DMK which set the trend of seeking court redress for personal complaints. Senior DMK leader R. Shanmugasundaram filed a petition in the TANSI case against Jayalalithaa in 1998. Since then a long list of corruption cases were filed against her by her opponents. For instance, in November 2003, DMK General Secretary K. Anbazhagan filed a transfer petition in the Supreme Court to get the wealth case against Jayalalithaa, then CM, transferred to Bangalore.

... contd.