Special Judge V Radhakrishnan summoned the witnesses to appear before the court for examination on December 28 in the Rs 10.16 crore colour TV scam in which Jayalalitha is the prime accused.

This is the second one, after the Pleasant Stay Hotel case, in which witnesses have been summoned to appear in the wake of the November 26 Supreme Court order, clearing the decks for trial of cases by the special courts set up to try corruption cases between 1991 and 1996 when Jayalalitha was the chief minister.

Meanwhile, dismissing a petition by former AIADMK minister Mohammad Asif, the Madras High Court Judge Justice V S Sirpurkar upheld the appointment of three special public prosecutors stating it was for the State todecide the number of prosecutors for each case. The volume of a case, facts involved, number of witnesses and volume of transactions involved apart from other relevant factors had to be taken into consideration while appointing special public prosecutors for each case, he held.

After rejecting pleas by two other accused in the TV case - former AIADMK minister V R Nedunchezhiyan and IAS officer H M Pandey - for adjourning the case on different grounds the special judge issued the summons.

While Nedunchezhiyan prayed for the adjournment, submitting that his appeal challenging dismissal of his discharge petition was pending in the Madras High Court, Pandey sought the adjournment on the ground that his petition challenging the sanction to prosecute him was also before the High Court.

Others facing charges in the TV case include Jayalalitha's close friend Sasikala Natarajan, former AIADMK ministers T M Selvaganapathy and V R Nedunchezhiyan, Sasikala's relative S R Bhaskaran, former chief secretary NHaribhaskar and H M Pandey.