John Michael D'Cunha

John Michael D'Cunha is a special court judge in Bangalore. On 27 September 2014 he convicted Jayalalithaa, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, in her 18-year-old Disproportionate Asset case. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of India to the post in October 2013 as the fifth judge to investigate the case, replacing judge MS Balakrishna.

D'Cunha was born in Gurpur, Kaikamba, 18 kilometres (11 mi) from Mangalore. He studied at SDM Law College in Mangalore, where he also played volleyball. D'Cunha started his law practice in 1985, and formed Manu Associates with fellow advocates Amruth Kini, M P Noronha and Ullal S K. The name "Manu" was formed from the first letter of each partner's name: ‘M’ for Michael, ‘A’ from Amruth, ‘N’ from Noronha and ‘U’ from Ullal. In 1999, he left Mangalore to join the Karnataka High Court.

In 2002 D'Cunha joined the judiciary as a District Judge. He has served in the courts of Bangalore, Bellary, and Dharwad. He also served as secretary to the Chief Justice and Registrar (Vigilance) of the High Court.

Flag hoisting at Idgah Maidan case against Uma Bharti

In the 1994 flag hoisting at Idgah Maidan case, the Judicial Magistrate First Class of the 2nd Court, Hubli had from 2002 to 2004 issued 18 non-bailable arrest warrants against Uma Bharti then the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, which Bharti had evaded. The Magistrate's court served a final arrest warrant on 3 August 2004.

Then Bharti, seeking to quash charges against her, approached the court of D'Cunha, then the District Judge of Hubli. D'Cunha rejected the petition because according to the statute of limitations, the case was too stale by 697 days. D'Cunha also rejected as defective a petition filed by Government of Karnataka that sought to reopen the case. He directed the government to cite 'proper grounds' for reopening the case and approach the Judicial Magistrate First Class 2nd Court.

Following this, Bharti resigned her position as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and on 25 August 2004, surrendered to the court at Hubli, and was remanded into custody for 14 days.

The subsequent application to withdraw the case against Bharti and 21 other defendants was accepted on 6 September 2004 by Mohammed Ismail, Judicial Magistrate First Class 2nd Court. Bharati was then released.

Disproportionate Asset case against Jayalalithaa

D'Cunha was appointed by the Supreme Court of India in October 2013 as the fifth judge to investigate the Disproportionate Asset case against Jayalalithaa, replacing judge MS Balakrishna. On 27 September 2014 D'Cunha convicted Jayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She was sentenced to a prison term of four years and fined Rs. 100 crore. The case was later acquitted by the High Court of Karnataka on 11 May 2015. It claimed Trial court order by D'Cunha is not sustainable in law.

Elevation as High Court Judge:

D'Cunha was appointed as Karnataka's High Court Judge on 11th Nov 2016 http://www.vikatan.com/news/india/72153-john-michael-d-cunha-appoints-as-a-judge-to-karnataka-highcourt.art