New Delhi: In a setback to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the Supreme Court today cleared the decks for her prosecution for not filing income tax returns in 1993-94 and asked a lower court to wrap up the trial in four months.
Refusing to discharge her from the criminal case, the apex court also gave a green signal for prosecution of her close aide S Sasikala also for not filing IT return for the same year and against company Sasi Enterprises, a partnership firm of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala for evading tax in the assessment years 1991-92 and 1992-93.
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.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and A K Sikri said that contentions of the AIADMK chief and others that there has not been any wilful failure to file their return cannot be accepted.
