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HC stays shifting of Virbhadra's IT cases
Vijay Arora
Legal Correspondent

Shimla, August 4
In an interim relief to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his family members, the HP High Court today stayed the order of the Commissioner Income Tax, Shimla, whereby he had ordered to centralise and transfer the cases relating to investigations into the income tax returns of Virbhadra Singh and his family members from Shimla to Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle-I, Chandigarh.

A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir passed this interim order on the separate petitions filed by Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh and son, Vikramaditya Singh alleging that the order passed by the Commissioner Income Tax, Shimla on July, 14, 2014, is wrong and illegal as they all have their bank accounts at Shimla and the territorial jurisdiction is Shimla.

They have also stated that the coordinated and joint investigation of all cases can be done in Shimla also and there is no need to transfer the cases to Chandigarh as this will only result in harassment to them.

The Income Tax Commissioner in his orders passed on July,14, 2014 had transferred all the cases to Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle, Chandigarh saying that centralisation of cases will enable department to conduct focused, synchronised and coordinated investigation. The court stayed the order and directed the Income Tax Commissioner to file reply within four weeks and listed the matter on September 16. 

HC order

* A bench passed the interim order alleging that the order passed by the Commissioner Income Tax, Shimla is wrong and illegal

* CM, his wife and son all have their bank accounts at Shimla and the territorial jurisdiction is Shimla

* There is no need to transfer the cases to Chandigarh as this will only result in harassment to them