Petition seeking acceptance of GK Vasan’s Tamkha donation details report: Election Commission ordered to respond
Tamil Nadu : The Chennai High Court has ordered the Election Commission to respond to a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Congress seeking acceptance of the late filing of the report on the party’s donations.
According to the Representation of the People Act, political parties have to file a report with the Election Commission every financial year, detailing the donations they receive. Income tax exemption will be given on that donation only after such a report is filed.
Commission’s rejection: Tamil Nadu Congress filed its donation report late in the financial years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Due to this, the Income Tax Department refused to give income tax exemption for these two financial years and sent a notice to pay Rs 66.76 lakh and Rs 1.07 crore.
Due to this, the Tamil Nadu Congress party applied to the Election Commission to accept the late submission of the report on donations received in the financial years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. However, the Election Commission issued an order on May 13 rejecting the application, stating that the delay cannot be accepted as per the law.
In this situation, Tamil Nadu Congress Party leader G.K. Vasan filed a petition in the Chennai High Court seeking to cancel this order and accept the report on donations.
It is said that the delay was due to confusion over which office to file the report in 2018-2019 and the delay was due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2019-2020 and the income tax was properly filed in both the years.
The petition was heard on Thursday before a bench of Justice Senthilkumar Ramamurthy and Justice Tamilselvi. At that time, the judges ordered the Election Commission to respond to this petition and adjourned the hearing of the case till June 18.
