Updated by admin on
Saturday, April 05, 2014 12:05 PM IST
Chennai:
An economic offences court in Chennai on April 3 asked Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa to appear before it on April 10 in an Income Tax case and rejected her plea for exemption from personal appearance.
The court had earlier asked Jayalalithaa to appear before it on April 3. However, Jayalalithaa skipped the hearing and instead filed a petition stating that she could not appear in court as she had to attend to "multifarious duties" as chief minister and AIADMK chief.
Jayalalitha said her presence was necessary to resolve the crises which surfaced "every day, nay, every hour of every day" across Tamil Nadu. Further, as general secretary of the AIADMK, she had to "tirelessly campaign" for the party, she added.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate R Dakshinamurthy, agreeing with the objections of senior special public prosecutor K Ramasamy, rejected Jayalalithaa's plea. "No more petitions for condoning absence and adjourning the case will be entertained," he said, and directed the chief minister and her friend N Sasikalaa to appear in court on April 10.
The order comes 17 years after the Income Tax department filed a criminal case against Sasi Enterprises and its partners Jayalalithaa and Sasikalaa for their alleged wilful failure to file returns for two consecutive assessment years — 1991-92 and 1992-93.
In January this year, the Supreme Court asked the city court to complete the trial within four months. Following the SC order, the economic offences court on March 20 dismissed the adjournment pleas of Jayalalithaa and Sasikalaa and directed them to appear before it on April 3.
On April 3, the chief minister requested the court to permit her counsel to reply to the charges.
Citing a SC ruling that said a court could exempt personal appearance if "appearance of accused would be difficult and cause inconvenience," she said the amended Section 313 of the CrPC too permitted an accused to file written statements to questions framed by the courts. Sasikalaa sought adjournment on medical grounds.
