The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to face trial for not filing income tax returns for her firm Sasi Enterprises from 1991-94. The trial court hearing the case has been directed to complete the trial in four months.

Jayalalithaa and her associate S Sasikala had been booked under Section 276CC of the Income Tax Act for not providing income tax details on the income of the firm during the assessment years 1991-92, 1992-93, while a separate proceeding was initiated for non-filing of return for 1993-94.

The AIADMK chief and her close aide maintained that the income for the period they were booked was not finalised and for this purpose no return was filed. On this ground, both prayed to be discharged in the case.

The bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri refused to discharge the two accused from the criminal case and directed them along with the company to face prosecution. Section 276CC of the Income Tax Act provides for rigorous imprisonment for a term ranging from 6 months to 7 years in cases where the amount of tax evasion detected exceeds Rs1 lakh.

The apex court refused to accept the argument that there was no ‘willful failure’ to file their return. “...The contention of the learned senior counsel for the appellant that there has not been any wilful failure to file their return cannot be accepted and on facts, offence under Section 276CC of the Act has been made out in all these appeals and the rejection of the application for the discharge calls for no interference by this Court,” the bench said.

Jayalalithaa’s final tax liability was determined at Rs12,54,395 as per the order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal after giving credit to pre-paid tax and for Sasikala it was Rs9,81,870. The firm’s tax liability was Rs32,63,482 for the assessment year 1991-92 and Rs52,47,594 for 1992-93.

Sasi Enterprises was formed as a partnership firm by a deed dated February 06, 1989 with Sasikala and one TV Dinakaran as its partners, which was later reconstituted with effect from May 4, 1990 with Jayalalithaa and Sasikala as partners.