Supreme Court seeks response from Chidambaram's wife, son on IT dept plea
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought responses from Congress leader P Chidambaram's wife Nalini and son Karti on an appeal of the Income Tax department against the Madras High Court order quashing criminal prosecution against them in an alleged blackmoney case.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, while issuing notices to the two, made it clear that it will not stay the Madras High Court's 2018 order quashing criminal prosecution against the Chidambarams.
The issue relates to alleged non-disclosure of overseas assets and bank accounts held by Chidambaram's wife, son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi.
According to the I-T Department, the three had not disclosed a property they jointly owned in Cambridge in the UK worth Rs 5.37 crore in their returns which amounted to an offence under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act and Imposition of Tax Act.
The Madras High Court on November 2 last year had said no case was made out and quashed the criminal prosecution.
Family members of the former union minister had filed writ petitions challenging the criminal prosecution.
The department has also alleged that Karti Chidambaram had not disclosed an overseas bank account he holds with Metro Bank in the UK and investments he had made in Nano Holdings LLC, USA.
He had also "failed" to disclose investments made by Chess Global Advisory, a company co-owned by him, which amounted to committing an offence under the Black Money Act, the department had said in its complaint in the special court in May last year
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Congress leader Venugopal urges LS Speaker Birla to revoke suspension of 8 opposition MPs
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader K C Venugopal urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday to revoke the suspension of eight opposition members, saying they were suspended "unfairly".
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Venugopal said Parliament has seen countless protests but suspending MPs is a "disturbing new trend" that cannot be allowed to continue.
Birla said a decision of the Lok Sabha cannot be discussed on the floor of the House and disallowed Venugopal to speak further.
Later, in a post on X, the Congress leader said he had raised concern over the "unfair suspension of 8 Opposition MPs for this Session".
"Rose in the Lok Sabha to raise concern over the unfair suspension of 8 Opposition MPs for this Session. Parliament has seen countless protests but the suspension of MPs is a disturbing new trend, which cannot be allowed to continue. This suspension should be revoked immediately," he said.
The eight opposition members were suspended during the first part of the Budget Session for "unruly" behaviour. They were suspended for the entire session.
The suspended members are Gurjeet Singh Auja, Hibi Eden, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Prashant Padole, Dean Kuriakose (all from the Congress) and S Ventakesan (CPI-M).
The suspended MPs have been protesting against the government on various issues while sitting on the steps of Parliament's Makar Dwar. Several opposition leaders, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have joined them from time to time.
