A city court was today informed that proceedings have been stayed against budget carrier Spicejet Ltd’s former Chairman Kalanithi Maran in one of the two tax evasion cases for his alleged failure to deposit over Rs 147 crore TDS with the Income Tax Department.
The court was also told that Maran has been exempted from personal appearance by Delhi High Court in the second alleged tax evasion case, after which the court fixed both the matters for November 6 for further proceedings.
“Complainant (Income Tax official) is directed to supply documents to the accused. Put up for further proceedings on November 6,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pritam Singh said.
Apart from Maran, the court had also issued summons to the firm and its then Managing Director S Natrajhen as accused and directed them to appear today after taking cognizance of two complaints of Income Tax Department filed against them.
Maran’s counsel informed the court about the Delhi High Court’s September 18 orders of staying proceedings against him till December 21 in the case dealing with IT returns of 2013- 14 and exemption from personal appearance granted to him in the case relating to 2014-15.
The counsel for Natrajhen, who was not present in the hearing, said since the high court has stayed summons against Maran, his client also did not appear. Natrajhen’s plea was allowed by the court.
During the hearing, the court asked the defence counsel to supply it the copy of the high court orders.
The IT Department, through advocate Brijesh Garg, had filed two complaints against the three accused with identical allegations and said a survey under the Act was conducted at the business premises of the company on August 4 last year.
It had said that during the survey, it was found that the company had deducted TDS against various payments to the tune of Rs 110.6 crore during the financial year 2013-14, but failed to deposit the amount within the given time-frame.
Similarly, the IT department had said that SpiceJet had also made payment to its deductees and deducted TDS against various payments to the tune of Rs 36.5 crore during financial year 2014-15 but did not deposit it in the government coffers within the stipulated period.
( Source – PTI )
