A petition seeking proceedings under the Income Tax Act and registration of a criminal case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay over alleged suppression of income and receipt of unaccounted cash has been withdrawn from the Madras High Court. [Rajkumar v. Director General of Income Tax].

A Bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice Arul Murugan was told that the petitioner had lost interest in the matter after the elections.

The plea filed by M Rajkumar had sought directions to the Income Tax Department to examine materials from certain search proceedings, Vijay’s sworn statement, assessment proceedings and a penalty order and to initiate prosecution under the Income Tax Act, including Section 276C.

It had also sought registration of a First Information Report (FIR) for alleged offences under the Indian Penal Code, including cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy.

The petitioner had further prayed that the material be placed before the Enforcement Directorate to examine whether there was any basis for a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The matter had earlier come before a Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan after the High Court Registry declined to register the plea over maintainability concerns.

By an order passed on April 8, the Bench had directed the Registry to number the writ petition with the endorsement “numbered subject to maintainability” and place it before the roster Bench.

The Court had said that the Registry could not refuse to number a case merely on the ground that it may not be maintainable in law. It had also expressed surprise that despite earlier circulars on the issue, the Registry was continuing to decline numbering of petitions on maintainability grounds.