Delhi High Court Dismisses Congress Party's Pleas Against Income Tax Reassessment

The Delhi High Court rejected the Congress party's petitions contesting the Income Tax Department's reassessment proceedings. Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, presiding over the bench, announced the verdict, stating, We dismiss the writ petitions. A detailed order is awaited.

On March 20, the High Court reserved its order on the pleas filed by the political party against the tax reassessment proceedings initiated by the authorities for three consecutive years: 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17. The party has contested the reassessment proceedings, arguing that 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.

Recently, the High Court declined to intervene with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal's decision, which had refused to stay a notice issued by the Income Tax department to the Congress for the recovery of outstanding tax exceeding Rs 100 crore. The assessing officer had imposed a tax demand of over Rs 100 crore for the assessment year 2018-19, based on an assessed income of more than Rs 199 crore.