The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed the sanction granted by the Principal Director (Investigation) of the Income Tax Department for prosecuting D.K. Shivakumar, Minister for Water Resources and Medical Education, and four other persons in a case related to wilfully attempting to evade tax and filling false I-T statement after “unaccounted” cash of ₹8.59 crore was unearthed during raids conducted at four flats in Delhi last year.
Justice B. Veerappa passed the interim order on a petition filed by businessmen Sachin Narayan, who has a financial partnership with Mr/ Shivakumar through various firms, and who is a co-accused in the criminal case registered by the Special Court for Economic Offences in this regard in June this year.
The High Court also stayed all consequential actions initiated based on the sanction order of May 28, 2018.
It has been claimed in the petition, among other reasons, that the sanction order passed by by the Principal Director (Investigation) was bad in law as the Section 279 of the I-T Act empowers only the Commissioner of I-T for grant of such sanction.
As the sanction order was common to all the five accused — Mr. Shivakumar, Mr. Sachin Narayan, Sunil Kumar Sharma, proprietor of Sharma Transports, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, an employee of the Karnataka government working as an assistant liaison officer in Karnataka Bhavan at New Delh, and Rajendra N, a retired caretaker of Karnataka Bhavan — further action initiated against all the five persons based on the sanction order will remain stayed until further orders from the High Court. Taking cognisance of the complaint filed by the I-T Department, the special court in June had issued summons to Mr. Shivakumar and others to appear before it on August 2.
