Madras High Court to hear income tax appeals against DMK, its charitable trust on February 9

Madras High Court to hear income tax appeals involving DMK and its charitable trust on February 9, 2026.

The Madras High Court is all set to hear on Monday (February 9, 2026) three writ appeals filed by Income Tax (I-T) department for transferring Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and DMK Charitable Trust’s income tax files to an official probing the seizure of ₹11.48 crore from a premises reportedly connected with the party’s general secretary and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan in 2019.

The appeals have been listed before Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan. They had been preferred against Justice C. Saravanan’s May 9, 2025 order through which the single judge had quashed the transfer orders and remitted the matter to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) for passing fresh orders after granting an opportunity of hearing to the party and the trust.

According to the I-T department, a search and seizure operation was carried out at various places connected with Mr. Duraimurugan and his son D.M. Kathir Anand, now a Member of Parliament representing Vellore constituency, on March 30, 2019 and April 1, 2019. The searches led to seizure of ₹11.48 crore in cash neatly packed in covers and pasted with printed labels containing names of Assembly segments and wards.

Since Mr. Duraimurugan was the general secretary of DMK and a permanent trustee of DMK Charitable Trust, the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle-1(3), sent a proposal to the Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) on January 13, 2021 for transferring the income tax files, of the political party as well as the charitable trust, to him to so that a ‘coordinated investigation’ could be conducted.

The DGIT accepted the proposal and issued a direction to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) to transfer the files. Accordingly, the Commissioner passed two individual orders on January 19, 2021 transferring the files of DMK and the trust from the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) and the Income Tax Officer (Exemptions) Ward-I respectively to the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle-1(3).

Immediately, the party as well as the trust filed two individual writ petitions challenging the transfer orders issued by the Commissioner. After the court ordered notices to the I-T department in those two cases, the Assistant Commissioner issued notices to the charitable trust alone on February 26, 2021 and March 4, 2021 calling upon it to furnish certain details related to the assessment year 2018-19.