‘Order to serve as deterrent for others’

Lucknow: The woman advocate who ensured jail term for the deputy commissioner of Income Tax department over contempt said on Saturday that the court’s order is going to deter other government officers and public from taking the instructions of the courts lightly. Radhika Singh who represented senior advocate Prashant Chandra said that the Income Tax official was given several warnings and reminders to straighten things up but failed to do so.
In his order, Justice Irshad Ali from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court held I-T deputy commissioner Harish Gidwani guilty and handed him a week-long jail term besides imposing a fine of Rs 25,000.
Radhika said that the court took notice of how blatantly the I-T department official ignored its directions. “In complete disregard of the court’s order that was given in March 2015, the department kept adding interest over the supposed penalty that was to be paid by the senior advocate. The order had been quashed by the court almost eight years ago,” said Radhika adding that the amount to be recovered from Chandra had increased to Rs 90 lakh from Rs 52 lakh .