Chennai: The income tax department has informed Madras high court that Kalanithi Maran was inducted as chairman and director of Spice Jet Limited with effect from November 15, 2010, therefore, he is squarely liable for TDS defaults made by the company.
The department stated this in its counter affidavit filed in response to the petition filed by Maran, challenging the order of the department dated November 3, 2014 declaring him as the principal officer of Spice Jet.
Justice M. Duraiswamy before whom the case came up for hearing, adjourned it to March 9, after senior counsel P.S. Raman appearing for the petitioner sought time to file response to the counter.
Referring to the contention of Maran that he was only a non-executive chairman of the company who has no say in the management, the counter affidavit said just because the company has a managing director, it does not mean that the Chairman/Director does not take part in the management of the company.
The fact that the petitioner resides in Chennai does not mean that he was not involved in the management as in today's world, it was not necessary to be physically present in the corporate office for administration of the company. When he was inducted as chairman of the company in 2010, he had expressed his plan of doubling fleet size.
Therefore, it is clear that the petitioner had taken part in the conduct of business of the company, the counter affidavit added.
