WHO congratulates India on successful assessment of India’s National Regulatory Authority

Big boost to Government’s efforts towards quality healthcare: J P Nadda

“The successful outcome of the WHO conducted assessment of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India is a big boost to the Government’s efforts towards quality healthcare, for which the Government is committed to”. This was stated by Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Shri J P Nadda, here today, as WHO congratulated him and the Ministry for successful assessment of the country’s National Regulatory Authority (NRA). He stated that the Ministry under the dynamic guidance and leadership of the Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji is poised for more such laurels in the healthcare sector. 

WHO, in its letter to the Minister, has applauded the country’s NRA being declared “functional’ with a maturity level of 4, i.e., the highest level as per currently evolved definitions in respect of 5 functions, and maturity level 3 in respect of 4 functions. While, maturity level 4 indicates good results and sustained improvement trends, maturity level 3 reflects systematic process based approach, early stage of systematic improvements, data availability regarding conformance to objectives and existence of improvement trends. Shri Nadda has termed this as the result of hard work of all the health functionaries who have collaborated with the Ministry in its efforts. 

The Minister informed that WHO has termed the 100% compliance in the WHO assessment (benchmarking) of the Indian vaccine regulatory system as another ‘landmark achievement’. The previous WHO assessment (benchmarking) of the Indian vaccine regulatory system was conducted in 2012 during which institutional development plan (IDP) and the road map for strengthening the NRA were developed. Pointing out to the introduction of newer vaccines in the country’s full immunisation basket through the nationwide introduction of pentavalent vaccine, and the phased roll-out of Rotavirus vaccine and Measles Rubella vaccine, Shri Nadda stated that the Ministry is confident that India shall meet all its global commitments in the healthcare sector as a result of these focussed endeavours. In addition, Mission Indradhanush has strengthened the full immunisation drive of the Government, the Health Minister stated. 

WHO accords high importance to equitable access to quality, safe, efficacious, and affordable medical and health products. In view of India being one of the main global suppliers of drug and biological medicinal products including vaccines, medical devices, and traditional medicines, and as it is supplying several vaccines to UN agencies, the ‘successful assessment will go a long way in strengthening global confidence in medical products from India’. WHO also notes that this shall ‘give an impetus to the “Make in India” mantra of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India’. 

A fully functional NRA is a pre-requisite for WHO prequalification of vaccines. One of the requirements to become eligible and retain prequalification status is to have the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) assessed as functional against the WHO published NRA indicators. WHO Prequalification Programme, as such, facilitates access to vaccines that meet the unified standards of quality, safety and efficacy as well as programme needs. The vaccine manufacturers can only apply for WHO vaccine prequalification if the NRA meets the standards of the WHO NRA published indicators i.e. WHO Global benchmarking Tool on functional regulatory system for vaccines. 

Recently, WHO has completed the assessment of the status of the Indian vaccine regulatory system against WHO NRA Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) for benchmarking and measured the maturity of the system. The assessment has been carried out by a WHO team comprising lead experts in different areas from WHO Headquarters Geneva, WHO India Country Office, experts drawn from the regulators of USA, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt. The assessment has been done in respect of nine different functionalities. 

World Health Organisation has, based on a robust benchmarking tool developed over years of consultation with various experts drawn from across the globe, carried out assessment of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India comprising the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), State Drug Regulatory Authorities, Pharmaco-vigilance Programme of India (PvPI) and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) structures at the Central and States levels. The nine functions included in the tool are National Regulatory System; Registration and Marketing Authorization; Vigilance; Laboratory Access and Testing; Regulatory Inspection; Clinical Trial Oversight; NRA Lot Release; Licensing Premises; and Market Surveillance and Control. The Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) so developed has 63 indicators and 288 sub-indicators, out of which 150 are critical. Earlier in 2012, NRA was assessed against 7 functions and 181 indicators. 

Secretary (HFW), Shri C K Mishra also congratulated the entire teams which have really put in very hard work to achieve this for the country. 

India's record satellite launch ramps up space race: Chinese media

Beijing, Feb 20 (PTI) India has done a better job than China in promoting satellite launch technology which could prompt Beijing to fast-track commercialisation of its rocket launches to vie for the world's small satellite market, Chinese officials said today.

"The launch indicated that India can send commercial satellites into space at lower costs, giving the country's competitiveness in the global race for the burgeoning commercial space businesses," Zhang Yonghe, director with the new technology department of the Shanghai Engineering Centre for Microsatellites, said.

China may fast-track the commercialisation of its rocket launches after India's success, Chinese-state run media quoted Chinese officials as saying in a report titled 'India's satellite launch ramps up space race'.

Zhang believes that India did a better job promoting its launch services internationally than China, the report said.

Acknowledging that after reaching Mars ahead of China, India stole the march last week by putting 104 satellites into orbit from a single rocket, Zhang said, "China will likely fast-track the commercialisation of its rocket launches to vie for the world s burgeoning small satellite launch market.

"The Wednesday's launch is India's latest triumph for its space programme"," a Global Times report said.

"In 2014, India became the fourth country to successfully send a spacecraft to orbit Mars, signalling a regional rivalry with China which suffered a failure in its Mars mission in 2012," it said.

"Nearly all of its 103 smaller satellites are from other countries including Israel, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and the US," it said.

After Indian Space Research Organisation's successful feat, the daily, part of the ruling Communist Party of China publications, had said the achievement made Indians proud but it sought to belittle the significance saying that its impact is "limited".

While praising the record launch as "India's triumph", today's report also said "with respect to the research and development of both military and commercial rocket launch services, India lags behind China, the US and Russia".

"India cannot match them yet unless it has enough rockets types to fulfil all satellites launches," it quoted Zhang as saying.

Xue Lijun, general manager assistant of Shenzhen Aerospace Dongfanghong Development Ltd said that India's launch on Wednesday is a breakthrough in terms of numbers, but not in technology.

"Technologically speaking, the launch did not have any big difficulties what [Indian engineers] need to do is to avoid the conflicts among satellites, which involves lots of calculation and data analysis, but is not a tough task," Xue told the daily.

"The 104 satellites are mostly in the same orbit, indicating that India still lacks capabilities of sending multiple satellites into various orbits," the report quoted the "experts" as saying.

Chief minister wins stormy confidence vote in India's carmaking state

Edappadi Palanisamy, a loyalist of interim general secretary of AIADMK party V. K. Sasikala, leaves the Raj Bhavan after swearing in as the Chief Minister of southern state of Tamil Nadu, in Chennai, India February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

The chief minister of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu won a confidence vote on Sunday after a brawl in the state assembly, triggered when the speaker rejected opposition calls for a secret ballot.

Edappadi Palanisamy won the vote by 121 to 11, which followed a weeks-long power struggle set off by the death of his party leader and former chief minister, filmstar-turned-politician Jayalalithaa Jayaram.

Palanisamy was elected leader of the AIADMK party, which holds a majority in the assembly, and sworn in as chief minister on Tuesday.

The assembly speaker then called a confidence vote, which opposition group DMK petitioned to be conducted via a secret ballot, arguing this would reveal deep divisions in the ruling party.

The speaker refused to grant the request and, after the brawl then broke out, ejected DMK lawmakers from the chamber, footage from Indian broadcasters showed.

One official was injured in the scuffle and was taken out on a stretcher, TV networks said.

The state of more than 70 million people, a magnet for foreign automakers and consumer electronics firms, has been in political limbo since Jayaram died on Dec. 6 without naming a successor.

The subsequent political turmoil, along with rising social unrest, has raised doubts over its attractiveness as a place to do business.

Following Jayaraman's death, her companion V. K. Sasikala was appointed interim general secretary of AIADMK and then sought to take over as leader.

But that bid ended this week when the federal Supreme Court convicted her of corruption and jailed her for four years.

Known as the "Detroit of Asia", Tamil Nadu is India's second-largest manufacturing state. It hosts manufacturers including <BMW BMWG.DE>, Daimler, Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault.

Before his appointment as chief minister, Palanisamy served as public works minister, and is little known outside his home state.

GST Council clears law to compensate states for revenue loss

Udaipur, Feb 18 (PTI) Inching towards rolling out of GST, the GST Council today approved a law to compensate states for any loss of revenue from the implementation of the new national sales tax but deferred approval for enabling laws to next meeting.

The all-powerful GST Council will meet again on March 4 and 5 to approve the legally vetted draft of the supporting legislations for Central GST (C-GST) and Integrated GST (I- GST), days before the start of the second leg of the Budget Session where the Centre is hoping to get them approved.

It will also approve the State GST (S-GST) law, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the day-long meeting.

After laws are approved, the Council will get down to fixing rates of taxes for different goods and services by fitting them into the four approved slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, he said.

GST, which will replace a plethora of central and state taxes, is a consumption based tax levied on sale, manufacture and consumption on goods and services at a national level.

Under it, C-GST will be levied by the Centre, SGST by states and I-GST on inter-state supply of goods and services.

Different indirect taxes of central excise duty, central sales tax CST and service tax are to be merged with C-GST while S-GST will subsume state sales tax, VAT, luxury tax and entertainment tax.

There was expectation that the GST Council will approve the C-GST, S-GST and I-GST laws to enable the new indirect tax regime to roll out from July 1 but while there was a broad agreement, legal language of some clauses held up the approval, he said. 

Officials said while an array of 53 clauses have been approved, only seven items.

Jaitley said the GST Council approved the Compensation Law that will legally provide for the Centre making up for any loss of revenue to states in first five years of rollout of Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime.

This law will go to Parliament for approval in the second half of the Budget session beginning March 9, Jaitley said, hoping the other supporting legislations of C-GST and I-GST too can be taken up in the month-long session.

S-GST will have to be approved by each of the state legislative assemblies.

The GST Council, headed by Jaitley and comprising of representatives of all states, held its first of the 10 meetings so far outside the national capital.

He said the critical anti-profiteering clause in the draft law to ensure that the benefit of lower taxes gets shared with consumers was not discussed in today's meeting.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said most of the time of the Council was spent over administration of powers over assessees between Centre and the state as the central bureaucracy was feeling left out and wanted a greater share.

Officials said only minor legal vetting of the draft laws is left which after getting the language legally right will be circulated to states by March 1.

Also, a separate UT-GST law, on lines of S-GST, needs to be enacted for Union Territories.

Despite fall, GDP will bounce back sharply: RBI Governor

New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel today said India's economic growth will make a "sharp V" recovery following the recall of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

Patel also made a strong case for continuing with globalisation even in the face of a potential shift to trade protectionism under US President Donald Trump as India has benefited from open trade.

"Almost everyone agrees that the impact is going to be a sharp 'V', that we would have a downgrade of growth for a short period of time," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

"However, the remonetisation has happened at a fast pace and that was part of the plan."

RBI last week lowered economic growth for the current fiscal to 6.9 per cent from the previously projected 7.1 per cent, but saw it bouncing back in a big way to 7.4 per cent in 2017-18.

He said the benefit of junking 86 per cent of currency in circulation will take time to fully play out and needs more work to ensure they are lasting.

Asked when India could achieve 9 per cent GDP growth, he said it is difficult to predict sustainable growth rates.

Higher growth rate is possible if very fundamental reforms, especially in factors of production like land and labour, are undertaken, the Governor said.

"Now how much higher than 7.5 that we are achieving so far is difficult to say. But the fact is we need to grow at some point faster than we are now," he said. "I think 7.5 per cent growth rate is not something to be disappointed about."

The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) headed by Patel had last week kept interest rates unchanged at 6.25 per cent for the second straight meeting and changed policy stance to 'neutral' from 'accommodative'.

The change in stance, he said, gives more flexibility to cut, raise or hold rates as compared with an accommodative one on inflation outlook.

"The best way that central bank can support growth on a durable basis is to ensure inflation is low, stable, there is financial stability and that is the role the central bank plays. Very few countries grow at high growth rate if inflation is high and volatile. So, I think we are doing our bit to support higher growth rate, but on a durable basis," he said.

The RBI Governor expressed concern over the US moving towards protectionism under Trump.

"I think it is a cause of concern for the world, I think it is a cause of concern for the emerging markets in terms of creating financial volatility. I don't think anyone will be safeguarded from it. We have to manage this as it plays out," he said. .

Centre submits issues in SC,questions practice of triple talaq

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The Centre today submitted in the Supreme Court a list of issues for adjudication including the question whether fundamental right to practice and propagate one's religion protected the practice of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims.

The NDA government has, for the first time in India's constitutional history, opposed in the top court such prevalent practices among Muslims on grounds like gender equality, secularism and binding international covenants.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar perused the four questions framed by the Centre and said they were "constitutional" ones which need to be dealt with by a five-judge bench.

The first issue was whether the practices of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy are protected under Article 25(1) of the Constitution.

The Article says: "Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion." 

The government then raised the question whether the right to practice and propagate religion is subject to other equally important rights, that is right to equality (Article 14) and right to life (Article 21) of the Constitution.

It then referred to Article 13 which provides that any law is void if it is not in conformity of the constitutional scheme and framed the issue whether the Muslim personal law amenable to this provision or not.

The fourth issue, framed for the consideration of the apex court, said these practices are compatible with India's obligations under international treaties and covenants to which nation is a signatory.

Earlier, the Centre, in its affidavit, had opposed these practices among Muslims by referring to constitutional principles like gender equality, secularism, international covenants, religious practices and marital law prevalent in various Islamic countries.

"It is submitted that the issue of validity of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy needs to be considered in the light of principles of gender justice and the over-riding principle of non-discrimination, dignity and equality," it had said.

Sasikala loyalist Palaniswami sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM

Chennai, Feb 16 (PTI) Edappadi K Palaniswami, a V K Sasikala loyalist, was today sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, ending the 10-day political uncertainty in the state which began with caretaker CM O Panneerselvam's revolt against the AIADMK general secretary.

Palaniswami is the third person to occupy the top post in the last nine months.

Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to 63-year-old Palaniswami, a party veteran from western Tamil Nadu, at the head of a 31-member Cabinet at a ceremony in the Raj Bhavan this evening.

The ministers were sworn-in in batches.

Palaniswami is the third AIADMK leader to be sworn-in as Chief Minister in the last nine months. AIDMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had powered the party to a rare successive term in office in the state in the May, 2016 Assembly Polls. She continued in the post through her grim 74-day battle for life.

Within hours of her death on December 5, Panneerselvam, who had filled in for Jayalalithaa twice in the past when she had to go to jail in corruption cases, was sworn-in as Chief Minister.

Panneerselvam later stepped down, paving the way for Sasikala, who was already chosen AIADMK general secretary, to be elected its legislature party leader on February five.

However, the usually reticent Man Friday of Jayalalithaa rose in rebellion against Sasikala two days later, claiming he was coerced into resigning. He even expressed willingness to become Chief Minister again if the people of Tamil Nadu and AIADMK workers so desired.

His belligerence plunged the state into a political crisis.

Amid the face off with Panneerselvam, Sasikala met Governor Rao on February 9 and staked claim to form the government.

Notwithstanding criticism from several quarters, Rao preferred to wait and watch as the political tug-of-war played out between the rival AIADMK factions.

He stood vindicated when Sasikala and two members of her family were convicted and their sentences restored by the Supreme Court in a disproportionate assets case on February 14, rendering her ineligible for contesting elections for 10 years and dashing her hopes of becoming the Chief Minister.

Sasikala then handpicked her loyalist Palaniswami, who was elected AIADMK legislature party leader, and staked claim to form the government on Tuesday.

Palaniswami was invited by the Governor today to form the government after he submitted a list of 124 MLAs supporting him last night. He has 15 days to prove his majority in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.

India scripts history, launches 104 satellites at one go

Sriharikota (AP), Feb 15 (PTI) Scripting history, India on Wednesday successfully launched a record 104 satellites--all but three of them foreign--from here and put them into orbit in a single mission onboard its most dependable Polar rocket.

Recording its 38th consecutive success, ISRO's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) injected India's weather observation Cartosat-2 Series satellite and 103 nano satellites into precise orbit in a gap of 30 minutes after a textbook lift-off from this spaceport, about 100 km from Chennai.

As the country seeks a bigger slice of the multi-billion dollar space launch industry, the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) bettered Russian space agency's feat of launching 37 satellites at one go in 2014. The previous highest number of satellites launched by ISRO in one mission was 20 in June 2015.

A majority of the satellites have earth-imaging capability while the Indian cartographic satellite is capable of taking high resolution images.

Celebrations erupted among scientists at the spaceport here when the ISRO chief announced that all the satellites had been put into orbit as planned.

"All 104 satellites successfully placed in orbit. My hearty congratulations to the entire ISRO team for the wonderful job they have done," a beaming ISRO Chairman A S Kirankumar said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated ISRO for the successful launch of 104 satellites, calling it a "renarkable feat".

"Congratulations to @isro for the successful launch of PSLV-C37 and CARTOSAT satellite together with 103 nano satellites!," the Prime Minister said in a tweet

"This remarkable feat by @isro is yet another proud moment for our space scientific community and the nation

India salutes our scientists," he said.

Cartosat-2 Series satellite, a remote sensing spacecraft with a five-year life span, would send images that would be utilised in coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, distribution of water, creation of land use maps among others, ISRO said.

After a flawless flight, the rocket first put into orbit 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series satellite followed by the co- passengers --ISRO's INS-1A and INS-1B, 96 other nano satellites belonging to two US companies, and one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UAE

Each nano satellite weighs less than 10 kg.

The satellites were placed in the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) in a gap of about 30 minutes during a series of separations.

The complex mission once again proved ISRO's capabilities in undertaking commercial launches with the PSLV achieving its 38th consecutive success

So far, ISRO has launched 226 satellites, including 179 belonging to foreign countries

At the end of the 23-hour countdown, the shortest so far by ISRO, the PSLV on its 39th flight, blasted off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9:28 AM and soared into clear skies

ISRO said it was able to reduce the countdown time, which normally varies upto 52 hours, as the preparations were completed in a shorter span.

Kiran Kumar said 77 of the satellites have already started communicating with the earth stations after the launch.

He said the mission was about maximising ISRO's returns and improving its capabilities

"Through PSLV, we are trying to capture a particular segment of (space launch market)," he told the post-launch media conference.

Replying to a question, he said US firms approach ISRO for launch of smaller satellites as the frequency of PSLV launches was more by India.

Project Director B Jayakumar said ISRO had lived up to the expectations of customers.

"It was a very good learning experience for us. We have launched 226 satellites out of which 179 are from foreign nations." 

With a total payload of 1378 kgs, ISRO opted for the most powerful XL variant of the PSLV for the 16th time in Wednesday's mission. It had earlier been used in the 'Chandrayaan' and the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) among others

The nano-satellites belonging to international customers were launched as part of their arrangement with the Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX) the commercial arm of the ISRO.

CARTOSAT-2 Series satellite was similar to the earlier four satellites in the Series

INS (ISRO Nano Satellite) 1A and 1B carry a total of four different payloads from Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Laboratory for Electro Optics Systems (LEOS) of ISRO for conducting various experiments.

Trump national security aide Flynn resigns over Russian contacts

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) sits next to retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (L) as they attend an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of RT (Russia Today) television news channel in Moscow, Russia, December 10, 2015. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS

WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned late on Monday after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Flynn's resignation came hours after it was reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House weeks ago that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took power on Jan. 20.

Flynn's departure was a sobering development in Trump's young presidency, a 24-day period during which his White House has been repeatedly distracted by miscues and internal dramas.

The departure could slow Trump's bid to warm up relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Flynn submitted his resignation hours after Trump, through a spokesman, pointedly declined to publicly back Flynn, saying he was reviewing the situation and talking to Pence.

Flynn had promised Pence he had not discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russians, but transcripts of intercepted communications, described by U.S. officials, showed that the subject had come up in conversations between him and the Russian ambassador.

Such contacts could potentially be in violation of a law banning private citizens from engaging in foreign policy, known as the Logan Act.

Pence had defended Flynn in television interviews and was described by administration officials as upset about being misled.

"Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice president, and they have accepted my apology," Flynn said in his resignation letter.

Retired General Keith Kellogg, who has been chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, was named the acting national security adviser while Trump determines who should fill the position.

Kellogg, retired General David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and Robert Harward, a former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, are under consideration for the position, a White House official said. Harward was described by officials as the leading candidate.

A U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that Sally Yates, the then-acting U.S. attorney general, told the White House late last month that she believed Flynn had misled them about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador.

She said Flynn might have put himself in a compromising position, possibly leaving himself vulnerable to blackmail, the official said. Yates was later fired for opposing Trump's temporary entry ban for people from seven mostly Muslim nations.

SC convicts Sasikala in DA case, dashes her bid to be TN CM

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) AIADMK chief V K Sasikala was today convicted in a corruption case by Supreme Court which dashed her ambition to become the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, as the verdict holding her guilty of entering into a conspiracy with late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa would bar her from electoral politics for the next decade.

The apex court judgement, delivered at a time when the state is witnessing a bitter power struggle in the aftermath of Jayalalithaa's demise, set aside the Karnataka High Court order acquitting all the four accused and "restored in toto" the trial court's decision in the 19-year-old disproportionate assets case.

60-year-old Sasikala will now have to serve a jail term of around three-and-half years out of four years awarded by the trial court as she has already undergone almost six months in prison.

The special trial court had found disproportionate assets worth Rs 53.60 crore, which Jayalalithaa and the three others could not account for. The CBI had alleged that the unaccounted wealth was in the tune of Rs 66.65 crore.

The top court directed Sasikala and her two relatives -- V N Sudhakaran, Jayalalithaa's foster son, and Elavarasi, widow of Sasikala's elder brother, to "forthwith surrender" before the Bengaluru's trial court which will "take immediate steps" to ensure that all the three "serve out the remainder of sentence awarded to them and take further steps in compliance of this judgement, in accordance with law." 

Sasikala, the close aid and shadow of Jayalalithaa for almost three decades, was locked in a power struggle for the top post with acting Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who was today sacked from AIADMK's primary membership.

She had been in the jail in 1996 when the case was registered and later in 2014 after the Special trial court convicted and awarded a four-year sentence with a fine of Rs 10 crore. Jayalalithaa was then awarded four-year jail term, besides a fine of Rs 100 crore.

The apex court, which abated the proceedings against Jayalalithaa who breathed her last on December 5 last year, held that the criminal conspiracy was hatched at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai.

"The joint residence of all the accused persons also could not be ignored as a factor contributing to the charge of conspiracy and abetment when assessed together with the attendant facts and circumstances reinforcing the said imputations," a bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said.