Supreme Court issues notice on Jayalalitha's petition

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice on a petition filed by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha seeking initiation of proceedings against Arcot Veeraswamy, a minister in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, for allegedly making a defamatory statement against her.

Jayalalitha alleged that Veeraswamy had made a certain defamatory statement against her in connection with an assault made on former state chief secretary T V Venkataraman.

The assault on Venkataraman took place on August 17, 1996. The notice, returnable within four weeks, was issued by a division bench comprising Justice G N Rai and Justice B Patanaik.

In her petition, Jayalalitha had challenged an order of the Madras high court upholding a trial court's decision to dismiss her plea against Veeraswamy.

UNI