Delhi HC Dismisses Congress Plea Against I-T Dept Order Of Opening Assessment Proceedings Of 2014 To 2017

New Delhi [India] : The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed the petitions moved by the Indian National Congress (INC) Party against the Income Tax Department order opening assessment proceedings for years 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.

The bench of Justice Yashwant Verma and Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order and dismissed the plea.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the Congress party and Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain appeared for the Income Tax Department in the matter.

Singhvi submitted that the Reassessment action of the income tax Department is "barred by limitation" as they could have gone back to a maximum of six assessment years. After the benchn query the IT Department apprised the court that as per the seized material, the amount is about Rs. 520 crores.

In the morning today, the Congress party also challenged four further years re-assessment initiated by the Income Tax Department. The Delhi High Court to hear that petition on Thursday.

Last week, the Delhi High Court upheld the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order refusing to stay on the Income Tax notice for recovery of more than Rs 105 crore as an outstanding tax against INC. The Court while upholding the ITAT order, granted liberty to the Petitioner congress party to move the Appellate Tribunal afresh with the grievance.

The Congress has recently approached the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) against the recovery and has filed a complaint and sought a stay against Income Tax Department proceedings of recovery and freezing of their Bank accounts.

In the complaint, Congress said the Income Tax Department has enforced its law by encashing some of the balances lying with the banks without waiting for the outcome of the hearing scheduled before the bench. Congress appealed that the department should not proceed further till the disposal of the stay application.