A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Union and State government authorities to deduct income tax at source for MPs and MLAs.
The First Bench, comprising the Acting Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice K. Venkataraman, on Tuesday, directed the petitioner to serve notice on the Central Government Standing Counsel, on behalf of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Income-Tax Department and also the counsel appearing for the Legislative Assembly Secretariat. The court ordered that the matter be posted for further hearing after two weeks.
In the petition, filed through counsel Manikandan Vathan Chettiar, the petitioner, V. Gopalakrishnan of MGR Nagar here, said a chunk of the citizens’ incomes went as income tax, but it was not so for MLAs and MPs; there was no tax deduction at source for them.
Even after his complaints in August and December 2011, the IT Department did not take any action.
Hence, the present petition.
