New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved verdict in the petition filed by Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi seeking transfer of the Sankararaman murder case to a court outside Tamil Nadu.

A Bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice G.P. Mathur reserved orders at the conclusion of arguments from senior counsel Fali Nariman for the Sankaracharya and senior counsel, Rajeev Dhavan, for the State.

Replying to the clarification sought by the court in the last hearing, Mr. Nariman reiterated that the holiday magistrate had no power to receive the charge sheet on January 21 on a holiday as he had only remand powers and he could not take up any other judicial work.

He said the case could be transferred to any of the courts in the neighbouring districts in Andhra Pradesh, viz. Chittoor, Cuddapah, Nellore and Tirupathi.

Appearing for the State, Mr. Dhavan said the practice in Tamil Nadu was that the powers of a holiday magistrate were not limited to remand duties alone. So there was no bar on a holiday magistrate receiving charge sheet. He said receiving a charge sheet could not be construed as a judicial act.

On the urgency of the charge sheet being filed on a court holiday, he said the 90-day remand period was to come to an end on January 23 in respect of the fake accused. Since charge sheet could not be filed on a Sunday, it was filed on Friday (Bakrid). Since January 21 was a holiday, the magistrate had only put in his initials and the court stamped it on January 24 and there was no mystery in it. The petitioner had blown the incident out of proportion. Filing of the charge sheet on a holiday was perfectly legal and proper. It would not justify the transfer of the case.

Mr. Dhavan, however, said in the event of the apex court deciding to shift the case outside Tamil Nadu, it could be transferred to a court in Pondicherry as there would not be the language problem.

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