Court reserves verdict on actor Vijay’s plea to expunge adverse remarks

Senior counsel Vijay Narayan argued, on the actor’s behalf, that the remarks made by a single judge in July, while dismissing the actor’s plea to exempt payment of entry tax for his imported Rolls Royce Ghost, were unjustified

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a writ appeal preferred by actor C. Joseph Vijay to expunge adverse of the court in July this year. The remarks were made while dismissing his 2012 plea to exempt payment of entry tax for his Rolls Royce Ghost imported from England.

Justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Mohammed Shaffiq deferred their judgement, after hearing elaborate arguments advanced by senior counsel Vijay Narayan. The counsel contended that the single judge had made wholly unjustified remarks against the actor and portrayed him, as well as the entire film industry, as anti-national.

Mr. Narayan said importers of luxury cars had to pay customs duty to the Centre. Over and above that, State governments began demanding entry tax too. So, some importers filed cases before various High Courts and obtained favourable orders. These were followed by numerous such cases and Mr. Vijay was one of those litigants before the Madras High Court. His writ petition was admitted in 2012 with a rider to pay 20% of the tax, and he complied with the interim order. Thereafter, in 2017, the Supreme Court, in a case arising from the Kerala High Court, ruled that State governments were entitled to levy entry tax. After that, the Madras High Court began dismissing all pending writ petitions in connection with the issue.