The Delhi High Court on Wednesday heard petition moved by the Congress party against the reassessment proceedings initiated against them for three years by the Income Tax department and reserved verdict. The court will pronounce the judgment tomorrow.
The high court today heard the petition moved by the Congress Party and reserved verdict. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Congress today and said that the proceedings is barred by limitation as they could have gone back to maximum of six assessment years, the LiveLaw reported.
Counsel appearing for I-T department told the court that alleged escaped income by the Congress stands at Rs. 520 crores.
The I-T department has opened a total of seven years of reassessment proceedings against Congress. Today's hearing is on reassessment proceedings for three years. Reportedly, the party has also moved against the reassessment of other four years.
On Tuesday, Advocate Prasanna S had mentioned the matter before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora of Delhi High Court.
The Court had allowed the request for urgent hearing and said that the case will be heard on Wednesday.
On February 16, the Congress treasurer Ajay Maken alleged that the I-T Department has frozen four of its bank accounts and has demanded Rs 210 crore in connection with the party's income tax returns in 2018-19. Maken said that 2018-2019 was the election year, and the deadline to submit account details was December 31, 2019. The Congress party was late by 40-45 days.
Following this, the party moved to the ITAT with an appeal against the freezing of its bank accounts and seeking a stay on the IT Department’s action.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court rejected the plea by Congress against the Income Tax Appalate Tribunal (ITAT) Order. The Congress party has prayed for stay on notice issued by the Income-Tax department for the recovery of more than Rs 105 crores as outstanding tax.
While hearing the case the high court had said that the matter was badly handled by the Congress party and it appears that someone in the party office has been asleep since 2021.
The high court had orally remarked that there does not appear to be any fundamental infirmity with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order rejecting Congress' stay appeal. The Congress had moved Delhi High Court challenging ITAT order dismissing its plea seeking stay on the recovery of outstanding tax for the assessment year 2018-19.
The ITAT dismissed the plea by Congress saying that its intervention in not needed at this stage in the case.