Centre to move SC for transfer of Himachal CM’s I-T cases
The probe against Singh and his family, following a PIL in Delhi High Court, involves a 14-fold increase in agricultural income — as shown in their revised I-T returns for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 — from Rs 47.35 lakh to Rs 6.56 crore.
The NDA government plans to appeal in Supreme Court against a “perverse” order by the Himachal Pradesh High Court that halted the transfer of an income tax investigation against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his family out of the Congress-ruled state.
Sources said the decision to file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) had been discussed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, and the Centre would approach the Supreme Court after he submits his opinion in writing.
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The issue was first referred by the Legal and Research wing of the Income Tax Department to the Law Ministry’s Department of Legal Affairs which noted on January 23 that the “decision of the High Court is perverse and requires to be challenged before the Supreme Court”.
The probe against Singh and his family, following a PIL in Delhi High Court, involves a 14-fold increase in agricultural income — as shown in their revised I-T returns for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 — from Rs 47.35 lakh to Rs 6.56 crore.
Tax investigators are also probing allegations of Singh having received Rs 2.28 crore in cash from an MNC steel firm in 2008 and 2010, when he was Union Steel Minister in the then UPA government.
Last July, the IT Commissioner at Shimla had transferred the cases to Chandigarh, saying its centralisation would enable a coordinated investigation. Five months later, the High Court set aside the decision, ruling that the department should have first furnished all relevant material on which it had based the transfer order.
According to the opinion of the Department of Legal Affairs, “(The) High Court has opined that Competent Authority is required to show each and every relevant material to the assessee on the basis of which transfer jurisdiction was proposed. This is neither in the Act, nor the intention of legislature, neither in the scope of the provision of Section 127 (of the IT Act).”
It added the High Court had “erred in setting a wrong precedent that taxpayer is entitled to obtain complete information about ongoing investigation against him at the stage of transfer of jurisdiction”.
Source:: Indian Express
