The property in the name of an income tax assessee itself cannot be a ground to hold that it actually belongs to such an assessee - Supreme Court
IN a judgement delivered on 6th January 2014, the Supreme Court observed,
"While passing the order of discharge, the fact that the accused other than the two Ministers have been assessed to income tax and paid income tax cannot be relied upon to discharge the accused persons particularly in view of the allegation made by theprosecution that there was no separate income to amass such huge properties. The property in the name of an incometax assessee itself cannot be a ground to hold that it actually belongs to such an assessee. In case this proposition is accepted, in our opinion, it will lead to disastrous consequences. It will give opportunity to the corrupt public servants to amass property in the name of known persons, pay income tax on their behalf and then be out from the mischief of law."
The Supreme Court made these observations while upholding the decision of the Special Court rejecting the discharge petitions of two former DMK ministers of Tamil Nadu.