List plea seeking FIR against TVK’s Vijay for alleged income suppression, Madras HC tells registry

The Madras High Court has ordered its registry to list a petition seeking proceedings under the Income Tax Act and an investigation into alleged suppression of income and receipt of unaccounted cash by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief Vijay, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.

The registry had earlier refused to list the petition filed by a person named M Rajkumar, questioning its maintainability.

However, a bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan has said that deciding on the maintainability is upon the court and the registry could not raise such objections, Live Law reported.

If the registry had any doubts regarding the maintainability of the petition, it could number the document with an endorsement “numbered subject to maintainability” and post it before a judge along with objections, the court said.

“It is for the court to decide on maintainability of the case and if found maintainable, then to consider the case on merits,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

The petition filed in April sought directions to the Income Tax Department to examine materials from certain search proceedings, the sworn statement submitted by Vijay, assessment proceedings and a penalty order, Bar and Bench reported.

It also sought to initiate proceedings under the Income Tax Act, including provisions dealing with the prosecution of persons who wilfully attempt to evade tax, penalty or interest

Rajkumar further sought the filing of a first information report for offences under the Indian Penal Code, including cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy, the legal news portal reported.

He urged the court to issue directions to place the material before the Enforcement Directorate to examine whether there was enough material for an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The court passed the order to register the petition after the registry placed it before the bench under the caption “for maintainability”.

Vijay’s election win

The development comes after the TVK, on its electoral debut, emerged as the single-largest party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, winning 108 seats on Monday. However, it fell short of the majority mark of 118 seats in the 234-member Assembly.

The Congress, which won five seats in the elections, declared its support to Vijay for forming the government on Wednesday. But even if the TVK accepts the support of the Congress, it still falls short of the majority mark by five seats.

The TVK is believed to be making attempts to secure the support of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), which are currently part of the alliance led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, PTI reported. They have reportedly given no positive indications so far.

The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, CPI and CPI(M) won two seats each in the Assembly elections.