The Madras High Court, on Tuesday, October 10, adjourned for three weeks the writ petition filed by Tamil actor Vijay against an Income Tax (IT) penalty of Rs 1.5 crore slapped on him. The actor had filed the writ petition on June 30, 2022. The penalty was imposed on him for non-disclosure of an additional income of Rs 15 crore in the financial year 2015-16.
Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy directed the Madras High Court registry to adjourn the case till October 30, after the petitioner's counsel sought an adjournment. It may be recalled that when the case was listed for admission on August 16, 2022, an interim injunction was granted by Justice Anita Sumanth restraining the IT officials from recovering the penalty amount.
Following this, AP Srinivas, senior standing counsel for the IT Department, had filed a detailed counter affidavit explaining the reasons behind imposing the penalty. Subsequently, Justice Abdul Qudhhose ordered that the interim injunction that was initially granted for a limited period would continue until further orders.
The IT Department during a search at the premises of the popular actor had found certain incriminating documents, indicating that he did not disclose his income in full while filing his returns. The documents that were seized during the raids indicated that the producers of his 2015 movie ‘Puli’ had paid him an amount of Rs 4.93 crore in cash, in addition to the remuneration of Rs 16 crore that was paid to him by cheque.
Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) was paid only for the cheque amount and not for the cash transaction. When confronted by the tax department, the actor had admitted that he had received around Rs 5 crore in cash and was willing to pay taxes for it.
However, while filing his IT returns, he sought exemption for certain expenses such as Rs 64.71 lakh spent for his fan club, leading to the levying of penalty against the actor. Vijay then filed a writ petition against this and now the Madras High Court has adjourned the hearing in the case for three weeks.
