The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from yesteryear actor Kutti Padmini to quash a notice of the Service Tax department to attach her flat in Saligramam. The department had issued the attachment notice for default in payment of service tax by her husband Goolabjith alias Prabhu Nepal, proprietor of Jakaarb Telefilms.
Challenging the notice, Padmini said she and her husband had signed a memorandum of understanding on the property in June 2011 and settled it in favour of their minor daughter, in July 2011. After attaining majority, their daughter sold the property to third parties who were the present owners of the property. With effect from July 20, 2012, the property had been transferred to one Rajagopalan Kuppuswamy and Hema Balasubramanian. Padmini alleged that the provisions of the Customs Act had not been duly followed by the authorities.
Rejecting her claim, Justice R Sudhakar pointed out that since Padmini was not the owner of the property in question, it was not open to her to challenge the attachment notice.
“If the notice has been wrongly issued to Kutty Padmini, it is open to her to give representation to the authorities setting out the details of the transaction that had taken place. If any action is proposed to be taken against her, she can defend such action as per law. At this stage, no relief, as sought for, can be granted. The judge directed Padmini to reply to the authorities explaining the facts, so as to enable the department to take appropriate action as per law.