The Hindu : National : Hurried disposal of IT cases against Lalu questioned

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Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

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National

Hurried disposal of IT cases against Lalu questioned

J. Venkatesan

Court seeks copies of tribunal orders

NEW DELHI: Taking exception to the hurried disposal of 25 income tax cases against the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, and his wife, Rabri Devi, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought from the Government details and copies of all orders passed by a Special Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Patna.

A three-judge Bench comprising Justice S.N. Variava, Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice S.H. Kapadia wondered how the Special Bench could dispose of the cases within three days after examining all documents and pass a 140-page order, giving them a clean chit on the assessments filed for the years from 1986-87 to 1996-97. It also questioned the wisdom of the Union Law Ministry deciding not to file any appeal in the High Court against the ITAT order, which said no legal issues were involved.

`Bid to derail trial'

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by the BJP MP, Sushil Kumar Modi, and the Janata Dal (United) MP, Rajiv Ranjan Singh `Lallan', alleging a systematic attempt by the UPA Government to derail the trial in the multicrore fodder scam and disproportionate cases against Mr. Prasad and his wife.

The Bench asked the Solicitor-General, G. E. Vahanvati, to give details of the 136 orders (including 25 against Mr. Prasad and his wife) passed by the ITAT between June 21 and July 2 last. It also called for the files on the opinion given by the Director-General of Investigation and the Additional Solicitor-General that no appeal was necessary against the ITAT orders and the status of the income tax returns filed by them for the assessment years after 1996-97.

Senior counsel for the petitioners, Mukul Rohatgi, contended that Mr. Prasad and his wife had challenged the sanction for their prosecution in the disproportionate assets case before the High Court long ago but the petitions remained undecided as Bench after Bench refused to hear the matter. The apex court asked the High Court to constitute a Bench headed by Justice Aftab Ahmed to decide the appeals as soon as possible, but not later than a month.

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