New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with an order of the Madras high court upholding the appointment of a one-man inquiry commission to probe into the mysterious circumstances leading to the demise of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa at Apollo Hospital in Chennai on December 5, 2016.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud dismissed an appeal filed by advocate P.A. Joseph challenging the high court order and seeking a fresh probe by a commission headed by three Supreme Court judges. 

When senior counsel K.M. Vijayan submitted that the high court had held that a resolution by the Tamil Nadu Assembly was only optional though it was a mandatory requirement, the CJI told the counsel “there was some kind of opinion floating (about Jayalalithaa’s death) and the government has appointed a commission. The HC has given judicial stamp and won’t interfere with it”.