Chennai, Apr 20 The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the I-T department on a petition against TVK chief C Joseph Vijay that sought a direction to the tax authorities to conduct an enquiry into "contradictory" disclosure of total value of assets in the nomination papers for the April 23 Assembly polls.
The petition sought a direction to the Income Tax officials over Vijay's affidavits filed before the Returning Officers of Tiruchirappalli (East) and Perambur constituencies by the actor-turned-politician.
The matter came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice S J Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arulmurugan.
During the proceedings, the bench observed that showing a difference of approximately Rs 100 crore in asset value between two different constituencies is a "serious irregularity”.
The petition was filed by V Vignesh, a resident of Vyasarpadi and a registered voter in the Perambur constituency.
According to the petitioner, Vijay, who is contesting from both Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East in the April 23 Assembly elections, submitted conflicting financial data in his Form-26 affidavits.
The petition highlights that in the affidavit filed for the Perambur constituency, the TVK leader declared total assets valued at Rs 115.13 crore. However, in the documents filed for the Tiruchirappalli East constituency, the valuation was stated as Rs 220.15 crore.
The petitioner argued that this discrepancy of over Rs 100 crore constitutes a willful suppression of facts and a violation of the voter's fundamental right to be truthfully informed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
The petitioner further sought a direction to the Election Commission of India and the Income Tax Department (Investigation) to scrutinise the financial disclosures, sources of income, and statutory corporate filings of the respondent.
The plea emphasised that if such discrepancies are not addressed before the date of polling, the electorate would be forced to make an uninformed choice based on misleading information.
After hearing the preliminary arguments, the court directed the Income Tax department to file its response regarding the alleged inconsistencies. The bench adjourned the matter to next week for further hearing.
Responding to the matter, TVK leader C T R Nirmal Kumar sought to dismiss the case as being based on entirely false information.
"This case is registered based on completely incorrect data," Kumar told reporters, adding some reports were being carried without verification.
"We demand that this case be dismissed immediately..." he added.
