The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed an order passed by the Income Tax department on June 30 imposing a penalty of ₹1.5 crore on actor C. Joseph Vijay for having not voluntarily disclosed an additional income of ₹15 crores during the financial year 2015-16. Following this on Tuesday, August 16, the MHC passed an interim order staying the Income Tax department’s order passed on June 30

Justice Anita Sumanth passed the stay order while hearing a petition filed by the actor seeking to quash the penalty. For the year 2016-17, the income for that year was Rs. 35 crores 42 lakhs 91 thousand, as he mentioned. However, the Income Tax officials who conducted the raid for that year compared the documents seized at Vijay's house in 2015. It was found that Vijay had concealed 15 crores of the salary received for the film Puli. The department states that the claims were disallowed and passed an assessment order fixing the taxable income to be Rs 38.25 crore.

“However, in order to cooperate with the department in an amicable manner, I admit an additional income of Rs 10 crores for the current financial year 2015-16. This is in addition to Rs 5 crore as already admitted by me on account of cash remuneration received for the film ‘Puli’,” he had said to the department and agreed to pay the necessary taxes for Rs 15 crore of unaccounted income. This led to the initiation of penalty proceedings under Section 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act, which resulted in the imposition of a penalty of Rs. 1.5 crore.

Following this, penalty proceedings were initiated under Section 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act leading to levy of penalty of Rs 1.5 crore and hence he approached the High Court challenging such penalty. The judge directed the Income Tax department senior standing counsel A P Srinivas to take notice and ensure that a counter affidavit to the actor's writ petition was filed by September 16.