CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court headed by Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava on Thursday restrained the Income Tax department from passing any orders against DMK and the DMK Charitable Trust regarding centralisation of accounts pursuant to the search and seizure conducted on the premises of Duraimurugan, the party’s general secretary.
The interim order was passed when the appeals filed by the Income Tax came up for hearing.
The bench issued notice to the respondents. Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundersan, assisted by AP Srinivas, submitted that the I-T department is empowered to centralise the cases in the interest of better coordination.
However, appearing for the DMK and the trust, senior counsel P Wilson, assisted by Richardson Wilson, submitted that the procedure under section 127 of the I-T Act was not followed for centralisation, which was passed in a hurried manner ahead of the 2021 polls.
It may be recalled that the I-T department conducted the search and seizure on the premises of Duraimurugan in 2019. The department wanted to centralise the assessment of the DMK and its trust and transfer the files to an officer in the central circle. Challenging this order, writ petitions were filed and Justice C Saravanan allowed the petitions in May.