The Quint: National: Tuesday, September 12, 2017.
The Central
Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) told the Supreme Court on Monday that there has
been a substantial hike in the assets of seven Lok Sabha MPs and 98 MLAs across
the country and "discrepancies" have been found.
The CBDT said
it would further probe the issue and place relevant documents relating to the
assets of these lawmakers before the apex court in a sealed cover. Adding, that
the names of these politicians cannot be revealed and would be given to the
court in a sealed cover.
The tax
department said they have probed the issue after a PIL was filed by the NGO,
Lol Prahari, which sought disclosure of the sources of income by the candidates
contesting elections when they filed for nomination.
The
government said the income tax department has inquired into these allegations
and “have prima facie found” huge increase of assets in case of these lawmakers
and the matter would be probed further.
However, the
board said verification report by the Director General of Income Tax
(Investigation) regarding the affidavits filed by these politicians cannot be
provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and would be filed in the
court in a sealed cover.
The CBDT's
affidavit has been filed as the apex court had on September 6 taken strong
exception to Centre's "attitude" of not disclosing information on
action taken by it against politicians, some of whose assets have seen a
massive jump between two elections.
A bench
headed by Justice J Chelameswar had directed the government to place the
necessary information in this regard before the court.
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