I-T department draws High Court’s ire

Hyderabad: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on a petition by the Telangana State Beverages Corporation Ltd (TSBCL) challenging the attachment notice issued by the income-tax department.

The I-T department had served a notice on the corporation asking it to pay tax arrears of Rs1,225 crore for 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The bench pointed out that there was no provision under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, which empowers the income-tax authorities to raise a tax demand on the newly-created corporation after the division of the state.

The bench made it clear that the provisions under the Act enables apportion of assets and liabilities of corporations enlisted under the Ninth Schedule and not for the newly-created corporations or companies.

While asking counsel for the I-T department to show the provision under which the department raised the demand against TSBCL, the bench said, “Instruct your officers to study the laws carefully more particularly Indian laws, not foreign laws, before initiating any action.”

At one stage, the bench asked I-T counsel why it had not taken steps to recover the arrears from the AP Beverages Corporation Ltd for 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Counsel replied that the assets and liabilities have been shared based on the population ratio of 58.32: 41.68 and, accordingly, the TSBCL has already paid its share of liability amounting to Rs 83 crore for the assessment year 2011-12.

The Telangana advocate general said the assets and liabilities are yet to be shared based on the report of the Sheela Bhide committee.

Warrant against principal secretary

A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy on Wednesday issued bailable warrant against the principal secretary of medical and health of AP for non-appearance in a case in spite of issuing an order.

The bench issued the warrant while dealing with a batch of petitions by K. Malleeswari and others with regard to the appointment of assistant motor vehicle inspectors alleging that the authorities had failed to constitute a medical board despite a court direction.

The bench, on April 3, had directed the principal secretaries of medical and health departments of both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh to be present in the court for failure to implement the earlier order passed by it.

The principal secretary to medical and health department of Telangana appeared before the court and the bench issued show cause notice to the officer seeking explanation on why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for failure to implement the court orders.