CHENNAI, January 5: Former chief minister J Jayalalitha has moved the Special Court to appoint an appraiser to evaluate the jewels seized from her Poes Garden residence in December 1996, to enable her to file her wealth tax returns.Her close friend, N Sasikala, has also filed a similar petition. S Sambandam, judge, Special Court-I, before whom the petitions came up for hearing on Monday, adjourned them till January 28. Jayalalitha submitted in her petition that the sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) conducted searches in her residence and on December 16, 1996, seized the jewels.By an order passed by the principal sessions judge on December 19, the jewels were ordered to be kept under the custody of the special court.She said that the jewels had to be evaluated for the purpose of filing wealth tax returns. As she was incarcerated at the time of the seizure, she had no actual knowledge of the jewels and their details.In its counter-affidavit, the DVAC submitted that the valuation by an appraiser might not be required to be filed along with the wealth tax returns, since a competent appraiser authorised by the customs and central excise department had already appraised the value of the jewels twice and given a certificate to that effect.The first valuation was carried out in the presence of the authorised representative of Jayalalitha and the second one was done on the orders of the Reserve Bank of India in the presence of the registrar of the City Civil Court. A copy of the house search list along with the jewellery valuation certificate had been furnished to her through her authorised representatives.Hence, she could not feign ignorance of the seizure of jewels and the existence of the valuation certificate.She could file the wealth tax return on the basis of the valuation already done by the Central government approved appraiser. Evaluating the jewels again would be redundant and cause administrative problems, inconvenience and expenditure, the DVAC said.
