The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the criminal proceedings initiated by the IT authorities against former Karnataka minister and state Congress President D K Shivakumar for alleged recovery of undisclosed wealth following a raid conducted at his premises in 2017.

In his plea, the petitioner, D K Shivakumar challenged the validity of the Karnataka High Court’s order of November 2019, declining to give him relief. The HC had then dismissed his criminal revision petition against the order passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Bengaluru, rejecting his plea for discharge in a complaint filed by deputy director, Income Tax investigation for having committed an offense under the tax laws and provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for Mr. Shivakumar, objected to the proceedings against his client and sought a stay and contended that no complaint (of undisclosed wealth) can be filed by the income tax authorities on the basis of a raid in which time has not been given to file the returns for the year.

The attention of the court was drawn on the ‘Clarificatory Circular No. 24 of 2019’ issued by CBDT, wherein it was laid down that prosecution may be initiated only when a penalty for concealment has been imposed and that the penalty has been upheld by the Appellate Tribunal.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices R Subhash Reddy and A S Bopanna issued notice to the Income Tax department but refused to issue a stay on a special leave petition filed by Shivakumar. The court sought a response from the Income Tax authorities within four weeks.