In a setback to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa ahead of Lok Sabha elections, a court here today ordered her to appear before it on April 10 to face trial in an IT returns case after rejecting her plea seeking exemption from personal appearance.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) R Dakshinamurthy dismissed as not maintainable Jayalalithaa's petition seeking exemption from personal appearance citing her electioneering work and warned that if the court order was not complied with, it would pass "appropriate orders".
On March 20, the court had ordered the personal appearance of Jayalalithaa and her close aide Sasikala Natarajan, co-accused, for framing charges in the case related to non-filing of income tax returns in 1993-94.
The court, however, accepted the plea of Sasikala for exemption from appearance for today on health grounds, but directed that she shall be present without fail on April 10.
Jayalalithaa's counsel B Kumar pleaded for exemption from personal appearance citing that his client, who is also the head of AIADMK, was engaged in extensive electioneering for her party in Lok Sabha polls.
Special Public Prosecutor K Ramasamy strongly objected to entertaining the petition and arugued it was not "maintainable" at this stage.
"The petition is dismissed as not maintainable in law," the Magistrate said in a brief order and adjourned the case to April 10.
"No more petitions for condoning her absence and for adjourning the case will be entertained. Otherwise suitable orders will be passed in accordance with law," the ACMM said.
The income tax department launched criminal proceedings against Jayalalithaa and Sasikala for allegedly not filing returns in their individual capacity for the assessment year 1993-94.
Complaints were also filed by the IT department for allegedly failing to file returns for the assessment years 1991-92 and 1992-93 by Sasi Enterprises and its partners, Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.
Discharge petitions filed by the accused were dismissed by the Madras High Court and their appeal by the Supreme Court.
Dismissing their appeals on January 30, the apex court directed the lower court to complete the trial in four months.
They are being prosecuted under Section 276CC of the Income Tax Act, which provides for rigorous imprisonment for a term ranging from 6 months to 7 years in cases where the amount of tax evasion detected exceeds Rs 1 lakh.
