AP High Court : Include I-T chief in tax appeal

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, May 2: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court has asked a petitioner to implead the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Chief Commissioner of Income Tax of the AP as respondents in his petition.

The bench was dealing with a public interest litigation filed by one Mr J. Narayana Swamy, an advocate from Anantapur. The petitioner alleged that Congress, Telugu Desam, BJP, CPI, CPI(M) and the TRS did not file their income tax returns since several years.

The court made the suggestion to the petitioner when the counsel for Election Commission informed the court that the Central Board of direct Taxes is the body which monitors the income and expenditures of the political parties.

The High Court earlier issued notices to the seven major political parties, including the Praja Rajyam, seeking their version on their alleged failure to file income tax returns as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act.

The petitioner told the court Section 29 (B) of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 envisages the recognised parties to accept contributions from the individuals as well as the organisations. During the amendment to the RP Act, Section 29 (C) was incorporated to curtail the black money role in the election and spending by candidates.

The relevant Section mandates the political parties to file their tax returns under Section 13 A and Section 139 of the Income Tax Act. The petitioner alleged that the political parties are collecting a lot of black money from various sources including the Non Resident Indians, but they did not submit any returns on the collection of funds from various sources.

He urged the court to direct the EC to derecognise the parties. The court said that it will examine the issue in detail after the summer vacation.