CHENNAI: Finding a prima facie case to proceed against filmmaker and actor SJ Suryah in cases of alleged violation of the Income Tax (I-T) Act, the Madras High Court has dismissed petitions he filed praying for the cases pending before a city court to be quashed. Justice G Chandrasekharan passed the orders recently.
When it comes to quashing a criminal proceeding, it is very well settled that uncontroverted averments in the complaint without any addition or subtraction should be looked into for examining whether an offence can be made out or not, he said. If that yardstick is applied in this case, this court is of the considered view that the respondent (I-T department) made out a prima facie case to proceed against the petitioner for the offences alleged in the complaint, the judge added.
Further, he said, Section 278 (e) of the I-T Act, 1961, empowers the court to presume culpable mental state of the accused unless the accused shows that he had no such mental state with respect to the act charged as an offence in the prosecution. “In this view of the matter, this court finds that the petitioner shall necessarily face the trial,” Justice Chandrasekharan said in the order.
The I-T department slapped statutory notices on Suryah for failing to file returns for the assessment years from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 2009-10. It conducted searches/raids in his premises, found unaccounted cash, and ordered him to pay a total tax of Rs 7.57 core.Challenging the order, Suryah approached the I-T Appellate Tribunal, which rejected his plea. He then filed the petitions before the high court.