Justice Anita Sumanth on Monday directed senior standing counsel A.P. Srinivas and junior standing counsel S. Premalatha to take notices on behalf of the Tax Recovery Officer as well as a Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax in Chennai and obtain either a counter affidavit or written instructions with respect to the former Minister’s writ petition by Thursday.
[11/29, 09:44] Sekarreporter 1: Former Health Minister C Vijayabaskar has approached Madras High Court against the Income Tax dept for having attached 117.46 acres of his land besides freezing 4 bank accounts, including his MLA salary account, for recovering Rs.206.42 crore!
[11/29, 09:45] Sekarreporter 1: Justice Anita Sumanth on Monday directed senior standing counsel A.P. Srinivas and junior standing counsel S. Premalatha to take notices on behalf of the Tax Recovery Officer as well as a Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax in Chennai and obtain either a counter affidavit or written instructions with respect to the former Minister’s writ petition by Thursday.
In an affidavit filed through his counsels, Nithyaesh Natraj and Vaibhav R. Venkatesh, the petitioner said, the I-T sleuths had undertaken a search on his premises on April 7, 2017, when there were complaints about bribing of voters during the by-election in R.K. Nagar constituency, which fell vacant after the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Claiming that no materials related to undisclosed income, cash or assets were found or seized from him during the search operation, the petitioner complained that nevertheless, the I-T Department proceeded against him on the basis of recovery of some loose sheets and the statements of a few third parties.
The department also began assessment proceedings for the years 2011-12 to 2018-19. When the assessment was pending, the petitioner approached the Income Tax Settlement Commission on December 28, 2019 but his application for settlement was rejected by the commission on January 9, 2020.
In the meantime, the assessments were completed hurriedly making “huge and high-pitched” additions to his income, the petitioner said and pointed out that the Tax Recovery Officer had on October 20 this year attached 117.46 acres of land purchased by him between 2005 and 2011 and falling under 48 different survey numbers.
On September 29, the recovery officer had also frozen three of the petitioner’s bank accounts in Pudukottai and one more account maintained by him at the Indian Bank branch at the MLAs’ Hostel inside the Omandurar Government Estate in Chennai for the purpose of recovering the tax arrears.
Assailing the action, the petitioner said he was now a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Viralimalai constituency and was unable to discharge his duties as an elected representative of the people because of the freezing of the bank account in which his salary and constituency expenses were being credited by the government.
He also told the court that apart from being a MLA, his other sources of income were through agriculture and a stone crushing unit named Rasi Blue Metals. Lands owned by him had been leased out to those who possess mining licences. However, now, it had become impossible to renew those lease agreements because of the attachment, the petitioner compla
