The Madras High Court refused to quash six prosecution initiations by the Income Tax department against filmmaker-actor SJ Suryah for recovery of tax amounting to over Rs 7 crore.
The case was heard by Justice G Chandrasekharan, who observed that Suryah had neither paid the tax dues nor filed returns for it even after the IT department issued notices.
According to Times of India, the court stated that unless the accused shows concerns regarding his mental state, the Income Tax Act charges the act as an offence.
The tax case against Suryah was initiated by the IT department which said that for the assessment years 2002-03 to 2006-07, and 2009-10, the actor has “suppressed taxable income”, following which the department initiated the prosecution for the recovery of Rs 7.5 crore tax pending against him. However, Suryah moved the Madras High Court challenging the prosecution before a special court for income tax cases in Chennai.
While Suryah’s counsel, NR Elango argued that the IT department’s complaints are “premature” and the proceedings are yet to be finished, public prosecutor N Sheela said that the petitions are “not maintainable” and are filed “abusing the process of court”. She further argued that the IT department’s complaints were filed as an “offshoot” of search proceedings held, without which the “violations” committed by Suryah would have resulted in “suppression of income” and loss to the government.
Noting the arguments kept in front of the court by the IT department, the court refused to quash the initiations by the department on the actor for non-payment of dues.
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Suryah was last seen in the recently successful Tamil film, Don featuring Sivakarthikeyan and Priyanka Arul Mohan. The actor-filmmaker, who has several recent successful stints as an actor, is awaiting the releases of Kadamaiyai Sei, and Bommai. Suryah will also star alongside Vishal in the upcoming Mark Anthony.