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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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
