Madras HC stays single judge order against actor Vijay
Chennai, Jul 27: The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of the orders of a single judge levying a cost of Rs one lakh on popular actor Vijay over a luxury car import case and making certain adverse remarks against him.
A division bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and R Hemalatha, which granted the interim stay, however, directed Vijay to remit the balance amount of 80 per cent of the entry tax levied on the import of his Rolls Royce Ghost Car from England in 2012.
He should remit the amount within a week, on receipt of a fresh demand notice from the Commercial Tax department, the judges said.
While dismissing a writ petition from Vijay seeking exemption from entry tax for his imported car on July 13, Justice S M Subramaniam had indicted him for moving the court without paying it and imposed a cost of Rs one lakh on him to be remitted to the Chief Minister's Welfare Fund.
The judge had also observed that reel heroes should be real heroes in real life. After directing him to pay the tax, the judge had dismissed his petition.
Aggrieved, Vijay filed the present appeal.
When the matter came up today, Vijay's senior counsel Vijay Narayan, former Tamil Nadu Advocate-General, told the bench led by Justice Duraiswamy that he was challenging the order of the single judge in so far as it imposed the cost of Rs one lakh and made some unwanted remarks.
The tax liability is not under challenge, he said adding he wants the removal of the remarks and imposition of cost.
Narayan said there was no necessity for the single judge to talk about the benefits of taxation for the country, the ill effects of not paying the same.
The comment that "reel heroes must be real heroes in their lives" was totally unwanted.
There were umpteen number of similar cases and they were either allowed or dismissed by simple and plain orders.
The remarks against Vijay were uncharitable, he contended.
In this connection, he cited a ruling of the Supreme Court which had held that judges were to avoid unwarranted remarks and refrain from doing so.
Directing the Commercial Tax department to file its counter, the bench adjourned the matter till August 31.
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SWR announces special trains for passengers stranded by large-scale IndiGo cancellations
Bengaluru (PTI): The South Western Railway on Saturday announced a series of special trains, in coordination with Central, South Eastern and Southern Railways, to clear stranded passengers following large-scale IndiGo flight cancellations across the country.
The special services will operate between December 6 and 10 on high-demand routes, including Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Pune, Yesvantpur–Hazrat Nizamuddin, Shalimar–Yelahanka and Ernakulam–Yelahanka, officials said.
According to an official statement, SWR will run Train No. 06255/06256 between Chennai Egmore and KSR Bengaluru, 06257/06258 between Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central, 06259/06260 between Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin, and 06263/06264 between Bengaluru and Pune.
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Central Railway will operate Train No. 01413/01414 between Pune and Bengaluru, while South Eastern Railway will run Train No. 08073/08074 between Shalimar and Yelahanka. Southern Railway will operate Train No. 06147/06148 between Ernakulam and Yelahanka, the statement said.
Railways has advised passengers to check updated timings on its official channels and arrive early at stations.
For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have been significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggage has been misplaced.
