India, Feb. 15 -- Eight years after the Supreme Court stopped criminal proceedings against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets (DA) case after her death, a top court bench on Friday clarified that its 2017 decision did not mean it had signed off on her acquittal by the high court.

The court dismissed a plea by her legal heir seeking the return of attached properties, reinforcing that abatement (the technical term for not considering a legal question, in this case because of Jayalalithaa's death) does not equate exoneration.

The bench headed by justice BV Nagarathna clarified on Friday that the 2017 judgment was a legal formality since the court was unable to proceed further in the criminal case d...