Chennai: Dr Geetha Lakshmi, Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr.MGR Medical University, whose residence in the city was searched by the income tax department along with state health minister C.Vijayabaskar on April 7, has filed a petition in the Madras high court, challenging the summons issued by the department requiring her appearance before it on April 12.
The petition, which sought to quash the summons dated April 7 is likely to come up for hearing on April 11. According to Geetha Lakshmi, the deputy director of income tax, along with his team commenced the income tax search on April 7 and completed it on April 8 at her residence and office. During the search, cash was found and the jewels were seized along with silver vessels. She co-operated with the team and nothing untoward happened in the course of search. In the circumstances, the IT department issued summons on her during the search, originally she was directed to appear on April 10 and the same was postponed to April 12 on her request, she added.
She contended that the penal provision under section 272 A of the IT Act will be invoked as against her if she has failed to produce the “books of accounts or documents” before the authorities. It was obligatory on the part of the I-T department to demand the documents after furnishing details of documents and hence the summons was not valid. The documents required by the department should be indicated in the summons, she added.
She said the I-T raid commenced on April 7 and the same completed on April 8. However, the summons was issued on April 7 itself before completing the search and hence it was not valid in law.
The I-T department has no jurisdiction to issue summons under section 131 of the IT Act. The summons cannot be issued, if there was no proceeding pending before the IT department. The summons did not reveal anything and hence it was void in the eye of law, she added and sought to stay all further proceedings relating to the summons.
