Madras High Court reserves orders on plea from Kalanithi Maran

Chennai: The Madras high court has reserved orders on a petition filed by Kalanithi Maran, challenging the order of the income tax department declaring him as the principal officer of Spice Jet, thereby making him liable for the alleged tax dues of the company.

Justice M.Duraiswamy reserved orders after hearing elaborate arguments from both sides.

When the case came up for hearing on Friday, senior counsel P.S.Raman appearing for Kalanithi Maran submitted that the petitioner has not received any salary from the company. 

He was the non-executive chairman and not involved in day to day affairs of the company. The managing director of Spice Jet had already given a letter to the I-T department to this effect already. Not a rupee was due to the department, he added. Additional solicitor general G.Rajagopalan submitted that the high court has no jurisdiction. The complaint has been filed in Delhi. 

The petitioner has already filed a petition to quash the proceedings and obtained a stay. As per their own annual statements of the year 2012 and 2013, the petitioner was having 52 per cent of share in the company and the registered office was shifted to Murasoli Maran Towers when the petitioner’s tenure as chairman of the company and even according to their own statement in the annual report, the petitioner was the main decision making authority. 

Therefore, the petitioner cannot say that he was not the principal officer. Whether the petitioner was a principal officer or not was a question of fact, which has to be agitated before the criminal court. Hence, this court cannot go into it, Rajagopalan added.