Chennai: The Madras High Court Justice G Jayachandran of Friday refused to set aside the conviction and six months imprisonment imposed on veteran actress and former MP Jayapradha by the Egmore Court in connection with non payment of the Employees State Insurance (ESI) funds for workers employed at the theatre owned by her.
The court directed the actress to approach the principal sessions court for suspension of the sentence and to deposit Rs 20 lakh as well as surrender within 15 days.
The actress along with her partners in Jayapradha Cine Threatre, Ram Kumar and Raja Babu, were convicted and ordered six months imprisonment along with being imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 by Egmore court. It was stated that the principal employer had to pay the money for the shares of both the employer and employee contribution. Later, the employees' share could be recovered from their wages. Following which, the actress had moved the high court.
The theatre management had deducted the ESI contribution from wages of employees but had not paid it to the insurance corporation. It was reported that the theatre management failed to pay Rs 8.17 lakh from November 1991 to 2002, Rs 1.58 lakh from 2002 to 2005 and Rs 1.58 lakh from 2003 and 2003 ESI money collected from the workers to the Employees State Insurance Corporation.
In 2004, the Employees State Insurance Corporation filed five cases in Egmore court on the basis of the employees' complaints of non payment of ESI money. Jayaprada has acted in several Tamil and Telugu films apart from Hindi movies.
Lawyer appearing for Jayaprada said, “ESI has not received any explanation why the workers have not paid the money. The case was filed directly on behalf of ESI without sending any notice. The Madras HC judge who ruled, in this case, confirmed the six months imprisonment imposed by the Egmore Court and dismissed the petition. Also, the court has ordered Jayaprada to surrender before the concerned Egmore Arbitral Tribunal within 15 days and deposit Rs 20 lakh."
