The Madras High court on Friday ordered that the term 'Gethu' was indeed a Tamil word and the movie was eligible for tax exemption from January 14, 2016 which was the release date.
"If 'Gethu' is a non-Tamil word because it starts with 'G' and not 'K' will Tamil also not be a Tamil word as it is not spelt as 'Thamil'?" asked the Madras High court while dismissing state government's order to refuse tax exemption to actor Udayanidhi Stalin's movie 'Gethu' claiming that the movie title was not in Tamil, as reported by TOI.
The producer's of the movie challenged the state government's order . The film was given a 'U' certificate and all the six viewing committee members concluded that the movie did not have any violence or mix of other language terms. The only objection they had was with with the title of the movie and was not made eligible for tax cut.
P Wilson, senior counsel for Red Giant Movies submitted dictionaries including the one published by the state government to claim that 'Gethu' was indeed a Tamil word.
According to TOI, Justice Duraiswamy said, "When 'Gethu' has been included in Tamil dictionaries, I am not in a position to understand how the six-member viewing committee unanimously came to the conclusion that 'Gethu' is not a Tamil word."
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