Sorabjee for deferring Sasikala's swearing in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi: Noted jurist Soli Sorabjee on Wednesday said Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao should defer the swearing in of AIADMK chief V. K. Sasikala and wait for the Supreme Court judgement in the disproportionate assets case against her.
Reacting to the current political developments in the state, he said the governor would do be well within his powers not to swear her in immediately because it would complicate matters if the court is to uphold the lower court order convicting her in the case.
The former attorney general, however, said it was not open to caretaker chief minister O. Pannerselvam to withdraw his resignation which has already been accepted by the Governor.
However, another eminent lawyer Aryama Sundaram felt that there was nothing in the law that can stop the governor from swearing in Sasikala, who has been acquitted of all charges against her in the case.
He said that the appeal against Sasikala was not an appeal against conviction but against acquittal. If the swearing in has to be stopped, then better rewrite the Representation of the People Act providing for barring persons against whom appeals have been filed should not be made chief minister, he said.