Dear Raj,
You can actually screw them hard by filing TEP. Its a indirect & cheapest way to harras them, your FIL will land up paying the moneyto Income Tax Deptt. but you have to do the follow up with them by filing RTIs...As per Income tax ..
As per the Dowry Prohibition (DP) Act, a list of gifts given to either bride or bridegroom by either side has to be maintained in a list of articles. So there are supposed to be 2 lists really. That’s the theory, but for all practical purposes no one at time of marriage is trying to follow the DP Act to it’s letter, so this law is followed mostly in breach and it’s a useless law for all practical purposes.
Here are the various possibilities about the jewellery bills shown by wife/in-laws to CAW, court etc:
1. The bills are real, and all the jewellery corresponding to those bills was actually given to wife at time of marriage. In that case, all those will be her stridhan. Very rare though since most people filing 406/498A etc are doing it not to get back anything, but take lot of your money. 93% acquittal rate in 498A — that’s the proof.
2. The bills are real, but the jewellery corresponding to those bills was never given at time of marriage. That’s a likely scenario, because the bills may belong to jewellery bought for anyone in wife’s family. And unless the bills are dated at a later date than wedding (though gifts can be given later too), it’s difficult for you to disprove that those were not given. Anyway the general principle of law 99% of the time is that the accused doesn’t have to disprove the allegation, but the accuser has to prove the allegation. That’s in theory, in practice, the divorce industry and the System has found clever or even downright stupid ways to trap, snare, misguide, scare the husbands and their families about bail, criminal cases, police and so on that many people don’t even think of these possibilities in a cool-headed way.
3. Many or all the bills are fake. Basically wife’s party has got those bills made from some jeweller known to them or by paying some commission. Many Indians do transactions in cash only, so the jeweller could easily create such bills without getting into problems related to tax paid, and so on.
Scenario number 2 has to be handled by denying, denying, denying continuously and steadfastly. I know of many people who are paying up deposits in courts as a pre-condition to get bail in 406. Here’s the news for you: consider that deposit as gone forever, and the System will try it’s best to extract much more on top of that deposit to grant you that ‘how to get out of these cases’ ‘mutual’ divorce with settlement to wife. Simply because you agreed to this conditional bail which is against all logic and common jurisprudence, but maybe matrimonial cases run on an entirely different form of logic not known anywhere except in Indian courts!
Scenario number 3 can open up possibilities for those who think a little outside the box than constantly asking and worrying about “how to get out of these cases”. Because bills being fake can mean that taxes (Sales tax, VAT etc) on those bills may not have been paid, the goods delivered in those bills may not have been delivered in the first place to jeweller. An RTI to sales tax/VAT department may do some wonders and might prove those bills to be fake or made at later date. The receipt/serial number on the bills will not match up with the usual other bills given to other customers at about the same time. Basically, the jeweller himself should be made a respondent/witness for yourselves and you need to cross-examine him. I see no harm in cross-examining because if he is able to prove true his fraud bills, then you are in a mess anyway whether you call him as witness or not. If you don’t call him as witness, then the court may think that since you didn’t cross examine a crucial piece of evidence, it means you are unable to refute it’s validity and that evidence (the bills) must be true. Use of RTI on jeweller’s sales tax, other license etc can also be tried.
Scenario number 3 opens up possibility of filing Tax Evasion Petition (TEP) on the ‘innocent’ father in law, who maybe needs to be given the joys of being on the receiving end of the law himself.
TEP (Tax evasion Petition) against 498a FIL (Father-in-law) and MIL (Mother-in-law)
To:
The Director (Investigation)
O/o Income Tax
Your City.
Sir,
Sub:Tax Evasion Petition against Sri FIL and Smt. MIL
1) Sri FIL, S/o: Sri FILs Father Name
2) Smt. MIL , W/o: Sri FIL
Both are R/o: Sri FIL and Smt. MIL address
I, ...... submit the following information for action against Sri FIL and Smt. MIL
I submit that Sri FIL and Smt. MIL performed their daughter Smt. 498a [aka: 498a-wifename ] marriage on ........... .........
I further submit that Smt. 498a wife (de facto complainant) D/o Sri FIL has framed and filed a false complaint against me and my family members with allegations of dowry.
It has been claimed by the de facto complainant in her own submissions that her Parents Sri FIL and Smt. MIL had spent nearly Rs. 6.5 Lakhs (inclusive of all, as submitted in Statement of Legal Witness-1 and Complaint Copy) for her marriage on ........ .....(in financial year ............).
Even if we assume that same amount of money was spend in her marriage as alleged in the Complaint Copy and Statement of Legal Witness-1(enclosed as Annexure -1 & Annexure - B1). It needs to be verified how her parents Sri 498a FIL and Smt 498a MIL amassed such an amount for this marriage.
It becomes my duty as a citizen of India to ask the authorities to verify the source of income and tax returns filed by Sri FIL and Smt. MIL
It is further submitted that Sri FIL was a retired (month & year ) school assistant from a Government aided school and Smt. MIL is working in a private un-aided school. From where they bought such amount of money for their daughter marriage and has carried other liabilities of family besides having other liabilities is a matter of investigation which your esteemed department has the jurisdiction to investigate.
Please investigate as to whether Sri FIL and Smt. MIL has ever shown such an amount as their income and paid taxes on the same (this income does not include only amount allegedly spend on their daughter marriage but also amount spend on other liabilities of their family and invested/spend on the property owned by them) and if they had purchased the gold, marriage related items and house hold articles from shops/showrooms after paying proper taxes for their purchase.
GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT
As Sri FIL and Smt. MIL (as claimed by them) had spent nearly Rs. 6.5 Lakhs in the financial Year ............ so their income tax returns and source of fund of Rs 6.5 Lakhs may be verified and tax should be collected as per provision of Income Tax. If I am not mistaken, the tax would be around
Rs. 25,000 to 1,25,000/- only for the year 2009-2010 and how about the other financial years?
Further, careful perusal of complaint copy, hints provision of section 68, 69, 69A & B, 69C & D and section 133(5) of Income Tax Act, 1961 are applicable to Sri K.S.Sarma and Smt. K. Anuradha as far as my knowledge. However, there may be many other provisions of income tax which is best known to Honorable Income tax authorities.
Section 68 of Income Tax Act, 1961 deals with cash credits proving identity of the creditor, capacity of the creditor, genuineness of the transaction are the important things of this section.
Section 69, 69A & 69B of Income Tax Act, 1961, deals with unexplained investment, unexplained money & investment not fully disclosed in books of accounts.
Section 69C, of Income Tax Act, 1961deals with the unexplained expenditure, the important requirement of this section is that an expenditure has been found to have been incurred by an assessee in any financial year and the assesses fails to indicate satisfactory source of such expenditure.
Section 133(5) , of Income Tax Act, 1961 it is mandatory to file income tax return on the expenditure incurred on any function or ceremony
PRAYER - RELIEF SOUGHT
Sri FIL and Smt. MIL income and source of funds should be verified for expenditure of Rs. 6.5 Lakhs in financial year 2009-2010 to recover tax and start proceedings against Sri FIL and Smt. MIL as per provision of Income Tax and the authority is under bounden duty to investigate since it relates and its refusal may prejudice the appellant upon which an FIR has been registered.
Since criminal jurisprudence, it is clear that innocent person should not be convicted and a person is presumed innocent unless found guilty/convicted.
Honorable Justice S. N. Dhingra has also given voice to my feelings in para 4 of his Judgment Neera Singh Vs. The State (State Govt. of NCT of Delhi) & Others in CRL.M.C.7262/ 2006 - 23.02.2007
“Now-a-days, exorbitant claims are made about the amount spent on marriage and other ceremonies and on dowry and gifts. In some cases claim is made of spending Crores of rupees on dowry without disclosing the source of income and how funds flowed. I consider time has come that courts should insist upon disclosing source of such funds and verification of income from tax returns”
It is therefore requested that necessary investigations may kindly be made against Sri FIL and Smt. MIL in the interest of justice and requirements’ of law.
Sri FIL and Smt. MIL provides the details of money being spend as gifts received from the relatives, friends etc, the flow of money should also be verified as there is every apprehension that they may provide false information and cheat the Tax Authorities.
As per Income tax rules, the source of Sri FIL and Smt. MIL income must be checked and recovery should be made from them against the expenditures they had made for their daughter marriage. I may be given the due prize money as per income tax guidelines for revealing this to the authorities.
In the light of foregoing, I request you to kindly take cognizance of my complaint and honor the aforesaid judgment (enclosed as Annexure - E) to verify their expenditure and initiate and take action to be ordered and taken against Sri FIL and Smt. MIL for tax evasion if any.
Kindly expedite your investigation and keep me posted with details of investigation report.
Thanking you, Yours faithfully,
[Petitioner(498a Victim)]
Enclosures: 1). True copy of complaint (Annexure - A)
2) Statement of Legal Witness-1, 2 & 3(Annexure - B1, B2 & B3)
3). True copy of FIR (Annexure - C)
4). True copy of charge sheet (Annexure - D)
5). Copy of judgment Neera Singh Vs. State Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors in CRL.M.C.
No. 7262/ 2006, dated 23.2.2007 ordered by Honorable Justice S. N. Dhingra (Annexure - E)
Copy to: 1) The Director General (Investigation)
O/o Income Tax, Aayakar Bhawan, Basheer Bagh, L.B. Stadium Road, Hyderabad - 004.
2) Member (Investigation) CBDT
R.No.-148, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi - 110011
3) The Secretary (Investigation) Ministry of Finance,
O/o Department of Revenue, Room No.55, North Block, New Delhi - 110011
