The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Egmore in Chennai summoned wife of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Nalini Chidambaram, son Karti Chidambaram and daughter-in-law Srinidhi Karti Chidambaram to appear in the court on June 25 in connection with the prosecution initiated by the Department of Income Tax under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Imposition of Tax Act of 2015 .
The Income Tax department initiated prosecution proceedings against Nalini, Karti and Srinidhi under the Black Money Act 2015 for not disclosing details of a property purchased jointly by them at a cost of 5.35 lakh Pound Sterling at Cambridge in Britain in the year 2015.
The Chidambaram clan had tried every trick in their armour to prevent the Income Tax department from proceeding with the case. Nalini Chidambaram, a designated senior lawyer, had challenged the competence of the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (Chennai) to sanction prosecution proceedings against them under the Black Money Act 2015.
In April 2018, Justice T S Sivagnanam of the Madras High Court had dismissed the writ petition filed by Nalini Chidambaram and others and ruled that a writ of prohibition could not be issued in anticipation of an action just because the petitioners had claimed that they were the only family in the country to have been subjected to multiple searches within two years and harassed by the Income Tax Department, the CBI and the ED under the laws related to foreign exchange management and money laundering.
Nalini filed another petition in the Madras High Court asking the court to direct the Income Tax Department to make available to the petitioners copies of the administrative orders issued to prosecute them. last week the First Bench of the Madras High Court had directed the Department of Income Tax to provide the petitioners with the administrative orders.
But the Centre along with the Department of Income Tax filed a review petition in the Madras High Court on Monday seeking the quashing of the directive issued by it to make the copies of the administrative orders available to Nalini Chidambaram and others.
The Centre also stated that the copies of the administrative orders could be collected by the petitioners when they are summoned by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court and the department would be prejudiced if the family members were given the copies of the sanctioning orders in advance.The court is hearing the matter.