Apex court stalls probe into J Jayalalithaa death

The Supreme Court on Friday stalled a judicial commission probe into the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The probe had done substantial work since its constitution on September 25, 2017.

The order came on a petition filed by Apollo Hospital group as the doctors working there were under the ambit of the probe being conducted by the Commission of Inquiry headed by former High Court judge, Justice A Arumughaswamy.

The Apollo group, represented by senior advocate CA Sundaram, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who ordered the listing of the case in the afternoon. Apollo had approached the Madras High Court earlier, challenging the constitution of the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission. But the HC on April 4 dismissed the petition following which, the hospital moved an appeal in the apex court.

The bench of CJI, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, directed a stay on further proceedings by the Commission and issued a notice on the petition to the state government, asking for a response. Sundaram argued that the panel went beyond its scope by scrutinising the medical treatment given to Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to the Chennai-based Apollo Hospital on September 22, 2016. She breathed her last on December 5, 2016.

Sundaram told the Court that the panel was scrutinising threadbare the operations conducted in order to assess whether the procedure adopted by the doctors was just and proper. "These are not aspects to be dealt with by an Inquiry Commission." The State too was present in Court and prevented attempts to stall the enquiry, claiming that the report was in the process of getting finalised.

Apollo claimed that Jayalalithaa had several medical issues and was admitted in the Critical Care Unit under a team of highly-qualified and experienced specialists, both within and outside the country. Although she showed signs of recovery on December 4, 2016, she suffered a massive cardiac arrest which resulted in her death.

It was nine months after the demise of the former CM, that the state government, ruled by her party — All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) — decided to set up an inquiry into the cause of death and negligence, if any. A one-member Commission of Inquiry was constituted under The Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 and the scope of inquiry was to find "the circumstances and situation leading to the hospitalisation of the deceased chief minister from September 22, 2016 and the subsequent treatment given till her unfortunate demise on December 5, 2016."

Hospital’s Claim

Apollo Hospitals group has claimed that J Jayalalithaa had several medical issues and was admitted in the Critical Care Unit under a team of highly-qualified and experienced specialists, both within and outside the country. Although she showed signs of recovery on December 4, 2016, she suffered a massive cardiac arrest which resulted in her death