Chennai, March 4 :     Madras High Court sitting judge Justice C. Shivappa, who has repeatedly rejected bail pleas from ADMK chief J. Jayalalitha and her associates, including Sasikala Natarajan, was asked today to step down on grounds that he is already past the age of superannuation. A communication from Union law minister M. Thambi Durai of the ADMK to Madras High Court acting chief justice N.K. Jain said President K.R. Narayanan had ?determined?, in exercise of his powers under Article 217 (3) of the Constitution, that Justice Shivappa?s date of birth was December 11, 1936, and not 1938. He had, therefore, already completed 62 years in December 1998, it said. The brief message added that the President had taken the decision in consultation with Chief Justice of India A. S. Anand. The message said while the judge had declared his year of birth as 1938, it was actually 1936. Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had complained that the judge had fudged the dates, it said, in apparent reference to complaints from some lawyers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka who petitioned the President, saying the judge?s date of birth, as per school records, was December 11, 1936. Justice Shivappa was hearing a case when he was informed of the development by the High Court registrar. The judge retired to his chambers and refused to comment. ?I will react after receiving the official communiqu?,? he said. Known for his forthright and blunt ways, the judge shot into limelight in August 1996 when he turned down Jayalalitha?s plea for anticipatory bail in some corruption cases which had just come under investigation. While Jayalalitha called it part of a campaign by the TMC-DMK combine to malign and harass her, the investigating agencies opposed the bail pleas, saying the probes had just got under way and the cases were only half-complete. Jayalalitha then asked for a blanket anticipatory bail that would forestall her arrest on any charge and anywhere in the country. The plea was turned down by Justice Shivappa after it was argued for nearly three months by noted lawyer Kapil Sibal. The judge also noted the presence of a prima facie case against the ADMK chief. The state, he noted, was well within its rights to arrest an individual for interrogation if it found it necessary. Jayalalitha was arrested the next day and remanded to jail for a month. A former advocate-general of Karnataka, Justice Shivappa was appointed a judge of the Karnataka High Court in 1994 and was transferred to Madras High Court on April 28, 1994. Today?s development, however, has raised a few questions in legal circles. Senior advocate V. Padmanabhan expressed surprise at the fact that the message had come from the law minister instead of Rashtrapati Bhavan or the Supreme Court. ?Why could not the law secretary write to the registrar instead of a minister sending a fax to the chief justice?? he asked.