Madras High Court on Wednesday exempted from personal appearance Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her aide Sasikala before the trial court for questioning and for framing charges in the Income Tax returns case.
On September 18, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M R Dakshinamurthy had directed them to appear `without fail’ on October 1.
Ms. Jayalalithaa and Ms. Sasikala had sought to quash a portion of a lower court’s order, directing them to appear before it.
Justice K B K Vasuki, who disposed of their petitions, directed the trial court to continue with the proceedings other than that related to the personal appearance and questioning.
The court also directed the Central Board of Direct Taxes to dispose of the compounding applications submitted by Ms. Jayalalithaa and Ms. Sasikala within a period of six weeks.
The Income Tax department had launched criminal proceedings against Ms. Jayalalithaa and Ms. Sasikala for allegedly not filing returns in their individual capacity for the assessment year 1993-94.
