Tax case against Jayalalithaa posted to August 7

CHENNAI: A court here today adjourned the income tax return cases against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her aide Sasikala to August 7.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R Dakshinamurthy allowed the petitions of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala seeking adjournment citing pendency of their plea for compounding the alleged offences against them before Income Tax authorities.

"The plea before the tax authorities has been posted for hearing on July 28 and therefore until the compounding application is decided on merits, further proceedings before this court may not be initiated," the defence prayer said.

Further, "in view of the same, personal appearance may not be warranted today," the defence counsel told the court.

Allowing the plea, the ACMM directed the defence counsel to file a status report on the compounding plea before the tax authorities on August 7.

During the previous hearing on June 30, the defence counsel filed petitions informing the court that applications had been filed before tax authorities seeking compounding the alleged offences.

The prosecution told the court that the tax authorities on June 25 had acknowledged receipt of the compounding plea.

Allowing adjournment petitions, the case was posted to July 24 and the defence counsel was directed to file a status report on the proceedings before the tax authorities.