The Delhi High Court upheld an order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) refusing to stay Income Tax department’s notice to the Indian National Congress for recovery of outstanding tax of more than ₹105 crore.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said there was no reason to interfere with the ITAT’s March 8 order, and granted liberty to the Congress party to move the Appellate Tribunal afresh.
The total payable amount of the outstanding tax with added interest now stands at nearly ₹135 crore, according to the statement of I-T department’s counsel in court.
According to a Bar and Bench report, the High Court Bench said that the proceeding against the Congress which began in 2021 has been handled “very badly”. It also added that someone in the grand old party’s office “remained asleep”, and the Congress itself is to be blamed for the notice.
“As we read this order (ITAT order), the petitioner has itself to blame. The demand is of 2021…It seems you made no efforts to securitise the demand…Someone in petitioner’s office has remained asleep since 2021,” the Bench said.
The Congress approached the court after the ITAT dismissed the its application seeking a stay on the February 13 notice of the I-T department initiating recovery proceedings against it. The assessing officer had raised a tax demand of more than ₹105 crore for the assessment year 2018-19 when the income was assessed to be more than ₹199 crore.
The counsel for the Congress had urged the court to grant it some protection otherwise the grand old party would collapse.
While the I-T department’s counsel informed the court ₹65.94 crore of the ₹135.06 crore tax demand has been recovered. The original tax demand was ₹102 crore, to which interest has been added, raising it to ₹135.06 crore.
“… we do not find that the recovery notice under Section 226(3) of the Act issued by the assessing officer on February 13, 2024 is lacking in bona fides, so as to require us to intervene,” said the tribunal while dismissing the stay application.
Earlier, the Congress said that the I-T tribunal order to freeze the party’s funds was “an attack on democracy” as it had come just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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Published: 13 Mar 2024, 03:05 PM IST