Income Tax notice issued to Chidambaram, family stayed

Justice Rajiv Shakder, before whom individual petitions of Chidambaram, his wife, son and daughter-in-law came up for hearing on Wednesday, concurred with the submissions made on their behalf and quashed the demand notices. The judge on posting the matter to March 16 for further hearing, said “Pending the adjudication of the writ petition, further proceedings pursuant to the demand are stayed.” 

The case relates to the 200acre coffee estate in Coorg, inherited by Chidambaram from his grandfather Raja Annamalai Chettiar in 1956. The estate has since been partitioned and divided into five units of 40 acres each, in the name of Chidambaram, his wife Nalini, son Karti, daughter-in-law Srinidhi and granddaughter. Nalini in her individual plea, said that she has disclosed in her return the income derived from sale of coffee seeds and claimed exemption under Section 10 (1) of the Income Tax as agricultural income.