The Income Tax Department had moved the apex court against the November 2, 2018 order passed by the Madras High Court seeking a stay.
In a big relief to the family of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay an order passed by the Madras High Court quashing tax evasion proceedings initiated against them under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act 2015.
The Income Tax Department had moved the apex court against the November 2, 2018 order passed by the Madras High Court seeking a stay. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Income Tax authority, claimed that the said order was harming its investigations as the order was cited to block similar action against other accused.
The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, "We decline stay of the HC order. However, we make it clear that the said order shall not be treated as a precedent for future." The court issued notices on the petitions to the respondents — Nalini Chidambaram (wife), Karti Chidambaram (son) and Srinidhi Chidambaram (daughter-in-law) for their responses.
The crux of the allegations against Chidambarams emanated from the non-disclosure of foreign assets held by them. The I-T department submitted to the court that after the accused had filed their individual returns, raids were conducted and upon discovery of their overseas assets and bank accounts, action was initiated for non-disclosure under the Black Money Act. The department alleged that seeing this, other accused facing similar proceedings were filing revised returns.
The department found out that the original tax returns did not disclose a property jointly owned in the name of the family members in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The department has estimated the worth of this property to be about Rs 5.37 crore. In addition, the department claimed that Karti Chidambaram, who is currently contesting Parliament elections from Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu, failed to disclose an overseas bank account with Metro Bank in the United Kingdom and his investments in a US-based Nano Holdings LLC.
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