The Delhi High Court again turned down four new petitions filed by the Indian National Congress (INC) challenging the Income Tax (IT) reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the IT Department.
Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, presiding over a division bench, dismissed the petitions after both the Congress and the IT Department acknowledged that these latest petitions were already addressed in a recent judgment by the Court concerning certain other assessment years.
This decision follows the Court's ruling on March 22, where it rejected
Congress's petitions against reassessment proceedings for the assessment years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17. The latest petitions, concerning assessment years 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21, faced a similar fate today.
Congress, amidst facing numerous tax-related challenges in recent weeks, has accused the Union government of deliberately aiming to financially weaken it ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The party has encountered successive setbacks in the courts regarding its challenges to the IT Department's proceedings.
In its March 22 ruling, the Court noted that the IT Department had "substantial and concrete evidence" to warrant further scrutiny of the political party's income under the IT Act for the years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17.
On March 13, the Court rejected Congress's plea against an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order, which denied its request for a stay on a demand notice for the recovery of nearly ₹105 crore in outstanding taxes. Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav upheld the ITAT order, allowing Congress to file a fresh application for a stay before the ITAT, considering the developments, including the recovery of ₹65.94 crore from the party in the interim.
(Edited by : Akanksha Upadhyay)
