Madras high court quashes I-T order against Kalanithi Maran

Chennai: In a major relief to Kalanithi Maran, the Madras high court has set aside an order of the income tax department declaring him as the principal officer of Spicejet Ltd, thereby making him liable for the alleged TDS dues of the company.

Justice M. Duraiswamy allowed the petition filed by Kalanithi Maran and set aside the order of IT department dated November 3, 2014.

The judge said, though the petitioner and his company were holding more than 50 percent shares, in the absence of any material to establish that the petitioner was in charge of the day-to-day affairs, management, and administration of the company, the assistant commissioner of income tax should not have named him as the principal officer.

It was also stated by the Managing Director that the petitioner was only a Non-Executive Director in the company, who was not involved with the day-to-day management of the company and has not made any visits to the company till date as he does not draw any salary or remuneration from the company and attends the Board Meetings only in the Non-Executive capacity, for which. “For the reasons stated above, it is clear that the  petitioner was not involved in the management, administration and the  day-to-day affairs of the company, therefore, the petitioner cannot be treated as Principal Officer”, the judge added.

The judge said there was a meeting between the company officials and the IT department in order to facilitate to pay the TDS on a payment plan basis and the company has submitted its plan on August 12, 2014 and the said plan was accepted by the department. Thereafter, the company has also made payments towards TDS and it was informed to this court by the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner that the company had paid the entire arrears of TDS and as on date, there were no TDS arrears payable by the company, the judge pointed out.