Shimla, Nov 18 (IANS): The Himachal Pradesh High Court Tuesday directed the income tax department to produce all the records related to transfer of cases of investigations into the income tax returns of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his family members.

The chief minister and his family have challenged the transfer of their income tax return cases to Chandigarh.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, while passing these orders, listed the matter for next hearing Nov 24.

The petitioners said the coordinated and joint investigation of all income tax cases could be done in Shimla and there was no need to transfer the cases to Chandigarh as this would only result in their harassment.

In the last hearing of the case Oct 15, the high court had decided to expedite hearing of the writ petitions.

The income tax commissioner, in his orders, had said the agricultural income of Virbhadra Singh and his family had dramatically increased in the revised return, which was an apparent attempt to justify the investments made in the purchase of insurance policies.

The assessees had close relations and business dealings amongst themselves and with businessman Vakamulla Chandrashekhar and his company Tarini Infrastructure Ltd, which require coordinated and joint investigations in all cases.

He had transferred all the cases to deputy commissioner of income tax of central circle in Chandigarh, saying that centralisation of cases would enable the department to conduct focused, synchronized and coordinated investigation.