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The Madras High Court connected Thursday (April 2, 2026) dismissed a lawsuit filed by All India Puratchi Thalaivar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leaderV.K. Sasikala’s alleged benamidar V.S.J. Dinakaran against an bid passed by an Appellate Tribunal nether the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act of 1988.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan refused to interfere with the tribunal’s December 16, 2025 determination to condone a hold of 763 days connected the portion of the Income Tax section successful filing an entreaty against the alleged benamidar.
“Once the Appellate Tribunal, connected being satisfied with the reasons assigned by the respondents herein, successful the involvement of important justice, has exercised its discretion and condoned the delay, this tribunal sitting successful entreaty implicit the aforesaid cannot interfere, unless the workout of discretion was connected untenable grounds oregon arbitrary oregon perverse,” the Division Bench said.
The past of the lawsuit dates backmost to 2016 erstwhile erstwhile Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was hospitalised and her adjacent adjutant Ms. Sasikala had allegedly utilized ₹1,911 crore of demonetised currency notes to acquisition buying malls, mills and assorted different immovable properties crossed Tamil Nadu.
After the decease of Jayalalithaa connected December 5, 2016, Ms. Sasikala was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment successful a disproportionate assets lawsuit connected February 14, 2017. In October 2017, she came retired connected exigency parole for 5 days to conscionable her past ailing hubby M. Natarajan and stayed astatine the residence of her niece J. Krishnapriya astatine Habibulla Road successful T. Nagar, Chennai.
The Income Tax section suspected that the existent crushed down obtaining parole was to instrumentality banal of alleged fiscal transactions that were carried retired aft the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes connected November 8, 2016 and therefore, conducted a hunt astatine Ms. Krishnapriya’s residence.
The hunt supposedly led to the find of photographs of the beforehand and backmost pages of a azygous escaped expanse from Ms. Krishnapriya’s mobile phone. The expanse contained a database of properties and antithetic figures written crossed those names with the suffix ‘paid’ and ‘to beryllium paid’ and the niece reportedly conceded to person taken the photographs erstwhile her aunt was residing successful her house.
Further enquiry revealed that instantly aft demonetisation, Ms. Sasikala, done her aides, had identified individuals who were hopeless to merchantability their invaluable immovable properties but were incapable to find purchasers with heavy pockets. All those individuals were offered a handsome terms for those properties but connected information that the wealth would beryllium paid lone successful demonetised currency.
All those who agreed to the woody were paid the currency notes that had been stored successful carton boxes astatine assorted places successful Chennai and the Kodanad Estate owned jointly by Jayalalithaa and Ms. Sasikala.
The recepients of those currency notes utilized them to settee loans of smaller amounts that they had obtained from antithetic individuals and the remainder was deposited successful their slope accounts by falsifying different concern transactions since the Centre had granted clip till December 30, 2016 for depositing the demonetised notes successful slope accounts.
The transactions were carried retired aft making the spot owners motion idiosyncratic Memorandum of Understanding acknowledging the receipt of money, but nary of those documents contained the sanction of the purchaser. Since the MoUs had neither resulted successful registration of merchantability deeds nor transportation of shares, the I-T section considered those individuals to beryllium Ms. Sasikala’s benamis.
Mr. Dinakaran who had reportedly received ₹18 crore successful demonetised currency notes for giving distant his stock successful Spectrum Mall astatine Perambur successful Chennai was besides subjected to proceedings nether the 1988 Act and his properties were attached provisionally. The adjudicating authorization nether the Act, nevertheless, refused to corroborate the bid of attachment and hence, the I-T section had filed an entreaty against specified refusal with a hold of 763 days.
