The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court -I, Egmore, is set to resume the trial in income tax cases against Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her close aide, N. Sasikala, on February 27.
The Supreme Court had last month directed the lower court to complete the trial in four months after dismissing a batch of appeals filed against a Madras High Court judgment that threw out their discharge petitions.
The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Chennai, instituted criminal proceedings by way of filing complaints in 1996 and 1997 against Sasi Enterprises and its partners, Ms. Jayalalithaa, and Ms. Sasikala for the wilful and deliberate failure to file returns for the assessment years 1991-92, 1992-93. The IT department also alleged that they committed offences punishable under provision of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
In 2006, their discharge petitions were dismissed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court and the Madras High Court.
The cases have been pending before the ACMM-I Court here since then.
When the matter came up for hearing before the ACMM, R.Dakshinamoorthy on Thursday, L.P.Shanmugasundaram, defence counsel sought to adjourn the case for two weeks.
K. Ramasamy, Senior Special Public Prosecutor for Income Tax cases, also sought one-week adjournment as the case papers were yet to come from the apex court.