Jethmalani also appealed to the President to take into account the manner in which the opposition brought down the government before arriving at any decision on the issue of an alternate government. ``The President has to uphold not merely constitutional law but morality as well,'' he added. ``In the President's eyes, the BJP has not lost the confidence vote.''

He felt the government should call a cabinet meeting and advise the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha since the present ``deadlock was insoluble''. He said he had spoken to Prime Minister Vajpayee on this issue and the latter appeared to be in favour of dissolution of the LS.

In a veiled criticism of the Prime Minister, Jethmalani said he hadbrought the illegality of the notification to the attention of the cabinet and advised it to withdraw the notification. ``I regret this was not done. On April 9, I tendered my resignation to the PM.My resignation was not accepted and I was told not to tell the Press.''

Jethmalani said he had now decided to go public not to embarrass the PM but expose the clandestine manner in which the notification was issued by the AIADMK's Law Minister. He said the notification was sinister since it ``involved tinkering with the judicial process and subversion of the entire judicial system''. Jaya, according to Jethmalani, had persuaded the government to issue a notification which had the effect of transferring partly-heard cases from competent courts to courts selected by the accused.

The minister said he ``strongly disapproved of good men like Jaswant Singh, George Fernandes and some others being sent to mollify her. I feel we were only inflating her ego and feeding her propensity for blackmail,'' heasserted.

Launching a scathing attack on Jayalalitha, Jethmalani said that the AIADMK chief was being allowed by the Congress to pose as a kingmaker and even a potential Prime Minister. Urging the Supreme Court to intervene in the cases relating to Jayalalitha, he felt that the AIADMK chief had forfeited her right to remain on bail and should be locked up.