HC reserves orders on Sasikala's appeal

Chennai, Mar 7 (UNI) The first bench of Madras High court today reserved orders on an appeal filed by Sasikala, close aide of former Chief Miniser J Jayalalithaa, challenging the single judge's order dismissing her plea to try her case under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and not under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) Ms Sasikala was arrested under FERA in 1996 for having directly imported broadcasting equipment for Jaya TV without obtaining permission from the Centre.

She was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and subsequently booked under the COFEPOSA. She, however, challenged her detention under COFEPOSA and the same was set aside by the Delhi High Court.

After the Centre introduced FEMA in place of FERA in 2001 and stated that it would come into effect from the ''sun set period of date of those cases, wherein chargesheets were filed under FERA. The Centre made it clear that only such cases would be tried under FERA, while other cases would be tried under FEMA.

Contending that she was not chargesheeted when FEMA came into force, Ms Sasikala appealed to the Enforcement Directorate to try her under FEMA. When the Directorate rejected her plea, she moved the Madras High Court and single Judge Ms Justice K Suguna dismissed the petition.

Challenging the single judge's order, she filed an appeal. The first bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Mr Justice F K Ibrahim Kalifulla reserved orders after hearing elaborate arguments from both sides for the past several months.

UNI XR/WS YA AS2008