NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the operation of actor and former Lok Sabha MP Jayapradha’s sentence in a case in which she was awarded six-month simple imprisonment for not having paid Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) dues of the staff of a cinema theatre owned by her for over 18 years.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal issued notice to the ESIC on the appeal filed by Jayapradha. Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing on behalf of Jayapradha, claimed the conviction order passed by the trial court in Chennai suffers from patent infirmities. The Madras High Court had dismissed the petitions that challenged an order of the principal sessions judge who refused to suspend the sentence imposed by a trial court on the actor and her partners who owned the now defunct Jayapradha Cinema Theatre.