CENTRE GETS LEGAL ROOM TO SETTLE JAYAS CASES: The Centre has received legal opinion from its Law Ministry that has cleared the way for a possible settlement “independent” of other criminal proceedings on a set of Income Tax cases filed against Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa. Documents with The Indian Express reveal that the Law Ministry’s opinion, on three related queries from the Finance Ministry’s Department of Revenue (DoR), led to the conclusion that the “discretionary powers” vested with the concerned Chief Commissioner could be exercised in the case. The queries related to compounding of the cases, which in effect allows for a settlement. The cases were filed after Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and their company — Sasi Enterprises — had failed to file their I-T returns from 1993-94 and 1996-97. The Supreme Court had asked I-T officials to wrap up their probe by 2014-end. In July, Jayalalithaa and the others had moved applications for compounding their offences which will save them from one set of litigation, even if the I-T Department moves to prosecute them. The Law Ministry’s opinion, received by the DoR earlier this week, stated, “Since Section 279(2) of the Income Tax Act vests a discretionary power on the Chief Commissioner of Director General to compound offences it is for the authorities concerned to exercise the said power and take a reasonable decision.” Further, the Law Ministry has opined that the compounding order could be treated as independent of the ongoing case of Disproportionate Assets (DA) filed against the AIADMK leader, which is now in Supreme Court. On September 27, a Special Court in Bangalore had convicted Jayalalithaa and Sasikala in the DA case and the two are currently out on bail. The Law Ministry has advised the Centre that “there appears to be no legal impediment for compounding of offence (under Section 276CC) during the pendency of such appeal filed against the order of the trial court in a disproportionate asset case.” In the four-page opinion, the Ministry has relied on guidelines that were revised in 2008 under which failure to furnish returns has been treated as a “non-technical” offence. The amended guidelines, however, state that no compounding of cases should be done for assessees linked to any anti-national/terrorist activity or being investigated by the CBI or Enforcement Directorate. The Law Ministry has pointed out that there was no evidence of any of these clauses being applicable in the case of Jayalalithaa or her associates.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 11:03:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015