The Income Tax department on Friday told the Madras High Court that the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court had acted well within its powers while taking cognisance of a complaint lodged by the department early this year against former Union Minister P. Chidambaram’s family members under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act of 2015.
Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan made the submission before a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, who were seized of writ petitions filed by the former Minister’s wife Nalini Chidambaram, son Karti P. Chidambaram and daughter-in-law Srinidhi Karti Chidambaram.
When the judges wanted to know whether the CMM court would be competent to take cognisance if there had not been any notification designating it as a special court under the Black Money Act, A.P. Srinivas, senior standing counsel for the department claimed that it had been designated as a special court.
After hearing him, the judges extended till November 2 an interim order passed by them last month granting exemption to the petitioners from appearing before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court.
The I-T officials had invoked the Black Money Act against the petitioners with respect to a property purchased by them jointly at a cost of £5.35 lakh at Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
