The Madras High on Thursday dismissed three petitions filed by Sasikala, a close aide of former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, challenging certain questions put forward by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Economic Offences – I at Egmore.
While doing so, the bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman also directed the court to expedite the trial if the and asked the parties to cooperate with the trial and to refrain from filing frivolous petitions to delay the trial.
The Enforcement Directorate had registered the case in 1996 against Sasikala (as Chairperson and Director of J Jaya TV), V Bhaskaran (Managing Director of Jaya TV), and J Jaya TV Private Limited. The cases were registered under Sections 8(1), 9(1) (c) and 9(1) (a) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act for allegedly making payments to the tune of 10.45 Singapore Dollars, without the RBI's approval, to make payment for transponders and to secure uplinking facilities for the channel.
Sasikala had approached the High Court against certain questions posed to her by the Magistrate. She contended that the questions were posed to her as if she was in-charge of the daily affairs of the company while the Managing Director had already answered the questions on behalf od the company. She thus questioned the rationale of fixing responsibility on her. Another petition was filed highlighting that there were defects in the cause title of the case before the trial court.
The ED opposed the pleas and submitted that the petitions were baseless and without any merits. It was submitted that any error in the cause title would not be detrimental to the petitioner and the same was curable by the trial court.
The court agreed with the ED's submission and dismissed the pleas.
Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr. A Asokan, Mr. GR Sekar, Mr. VS Ramesh, Mr. Muthukumar
Counsel for the Respondent: Mr. Rajnish Pathiyil, Special PP (ED)
Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 478
Case Title: N Sasikala v The Assistant Director, ED
Case No: Crl OP 11152 of 2019