Chennai: The Income Tax Department threw a big surprise in the Madras High Court on Thursday stating that late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s sprawling ‘Veda Nilayam’ bungalow in upmarket Poes Garden in Chennai and three other properties were under attachment since 2007. Besides, it said Jayalalithaa’s cumulative wealth tax and income tax dues for varying periods stood at over Rs 16.74 crore. The I-T department’s contention put a spanner in the AIADMK government’s plans of acquiring Jayalalithaa’s bungalow to convert it into a memorial.
An affidavit submitted by the I-T department, in a case filed by an activist challenging the government’s decision to convert the ‘Veda Nilayam’ into a memorial, said besides the bungalow, a commercial property and another immovable asset in Chennai and a house in Sri Nagar Colony in Hyderabad are among the attached assets.
The department said as on December 31, 2018, the late Jayalalithaa’s wealth tax due, including interest for the assessment years 1990-91 to 2011-12, was around Rs 10.12 crore. Besides, her income tax dues ran to Rs 6.62 crore for the assessment years 2005-06 to 2011-12.
Taken aback by the submission, Advocate General Vijay Narayan told the division bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumanth, that the government was oblivious to such an attachment order. The court then questioned how the government could acquire Jayalalithaa’s bungalow for converting it into a memorial when it was under attachment.
The Advocate General said that he would find out if an attached property could be acquired and added that if the law permits “then we could even deposit the compensation amount (for acquiring the property) with the IT Department.”
The bench adjourned the case by two weeks.
