Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa (File Photo)

NEW DELHI: Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa ’s wife Novel Lavasa has been questioned by the income tax department in connection with her income and benefits received as director of 10 companies, including two Tata group firms and six of the Welspun Group .

According to sources, Novel appeared for questioning last week before I-T investigation in New Delhi after she was served a notice seeking information related to her income. She was asked to explain payments received from the companies in which she served as director, besides any other income not reported in her returns. Her I-T returns for the last five years are under scrutiny.

Novel was appointed director in a Tata group joint venture , Powerlinks Transmission Ltd, on May 2, 2017, when her husband was finance secretary. Lavasa was among the top bureaucrats given key positions when the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.

He was appointed environment secretary in August 2014 and served there till April 2016 when he was shifted to the finance ministry. Lavasa retired in October 2017 and was appointed election commissioner in January 2018.

During Lavasa’s stints with two important ministries, environment and finance, his wife was appointed director in 10 companies.

While serving as environment secretary, Lavasa refused to comment when TOI had sent him a detailed questionnaire asking whether his wife’s appointment as director in these companies constituted conflict of interest since many of these firms had been accorded pending environment clearances.

In the middle of the 2019 parliamentary polls, Lavasa had recorded his dissent note against the EC’s decision to give a clean chit to Modi over allegations of violation of model code of conduct. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, he insisted that his dissent note be made public. The EC turned down his demand by a majority 2:1 decision.



In Video: Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s wife questioned by I-T department