E-Paper
Delhi HC rejects Congress's plea against income tax re-assessment for 2014-17
Delhi HC rejects Congress's plea against income tax re-assessment for 2014-17
The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed the Congress party's plea challenging the Income Tax (IT) department's decision to initiate reassessment proceedings against the party,
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, while pronouncing the verdict, said, "We dismiss the writ petitions."
The high court had reserved its order on March 20 on the pleas filed by Congress against the tax reassessment proceedings for the assessment years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing the Congress party, had submitted that tax reassessment proceedings are barred by limitation and the I-T department could have gone back to a maximum of six assessment years.
The I-T department, however, asserted there was no violation of any statutory provision by the tax authority and that as per the material recovered, the "escaped" income by the party is more than ₹520 crore.
The court's decision comes a day after the Congress held a press conference accusing the Narendra Modi government of crippling the party's finances ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Making a rare appearance at the press conference alongside party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said the issue being taken up today is "very, very serious" and affects not just the Congress but "impacts our democracy itself most fundamentally".
"A systematic effort is underway by the prime minister to cripple the Indian National Congress financially. Funds collected from the public are being frozen, and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly," she said.
"Even under these most challenging circumstances, we are doing our best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign," she said.
However, according to a PTI report, the I-T department has not frozen the Congress' bank accounts but has made a recovery of ₹135 crore because it allegedly violated the law that grants political parties tax exemptions. The party is free to operate these accounts beyond the money recovered by the department, PTI reported citing official sources.
