While hearing a PIL by Lok Prahari, the Supreme Court bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer had moved into the territory of unusual growth in earnings of elected legislators, some to the tune of 500 percent.
On Tuesday (September 12), Justices Chelameswar questioned: “How did the candidate, while already being a Member of Parliament, enter into a business he claims?”
On Tuesday, Attorney General KK Venugopal, representing Gurpreet Shah Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, CBDT, submitted that as arranged between the CBDT and ECI, verification of candidates was done as per the Income Tax Act, 1961. A copy of the arrangements was also produced in court. Section 138 IT Act talks about disclosure of income by candidates.
Investigation received by the CBDT includes 26 members of the Lok Sabha, two members of the Rajya Sabha and a total of 215 MLAs.
The director general of investigation produced the report of the enquiry in a sealed copy. PAN of the candidates would also be provided by ECI to the income tax officer.
Meanwhile, the petitioner argued that 257 MLAs are fully covered by ECI guidelines. The petitioner also said the affidavit submitted shows no action taken in seven cases of discrepancies and on four MLAs whose income increased by more than 10 times. “We need to know that the said increases are commensurate with their sources of income,” the petitioner said.
—India Legal Bureau