Delhi HC Dismisses Congress Plea Against Tax Re-assessment By IT Authorities

A Delhi HC bench comprising Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said the pleas were dismissed in terms of its earlier decision refusing to interfere with the opening of re-assessment for another.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 28 March 2024 12:31 pm

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leaders Sonia Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Ambika Soni and others during the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, at AICC Headquarters in New Delhi, Thursday, March 7, 2024. Photo: PTI/File

The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected petitions by the Congress which challenged the initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against the party for a period of four years by tax authorities.

A bench comprising Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said the pleas were dismissed in terms of its earlier decision refusing to interfere with the opening of re-assessment for another year, according to a news agency PTI report.

This matter pertained to assessment years 2017 to 2021.

In the earlier petition, which was dismissed last week, the Congress had challenged initiation of re-assessment proceedings pertaining to assessment years 2014-15 to 2016-17.

The high court had reserved its order on March 20 on the pleas filed by the political party against the tax reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the authorities for three successive years: 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The party has contested the reassessment proceedings, claiming they were barred by limitation.

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 Rs 520 crore.

(with PTI inputs)