Delhi High Court junks Congress’ petitions in tax case

& PTI

New Delhi, March 22

In a setback to the Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed its three petitions challenging the reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the Income Tax Department, saying the tax authority has collated “substantial and concrete” evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination.

“The writ petitioner has… chosen to approach this court only a few days before the time for completion of assessment would expire and at the proverbial fag end of the proceedings. We consequently find no justification to interdict the assessment proceedings at this belated stage by invoking our jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution,” a Bench of Justice Yashwant Varma and Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said.

Noting that the notice was issued to the Congress by the I-T Department on March 7, 2023, and the satisfaction note by the Assessing Officer (AO) appeared to have been provided to the petitioner on June 28 and 30, 2023, the Bench said the party challenged the assessment proceedings at a belated stage as it’s to be completed by March 31, 2024. The party filed the petitions only on March 19, it said.

The high court, however, left open the question as to whether the delay in commencement of proceedings would be fatal to the assessment.

The court said the statutory time-frames mandate assessment to be completed within 12 months from the time when the books of accounts or material are handed over to the AO of the non-searched person.

“This would mean that in the present case and taking the date of handing over or recordal of satisfaction as constituting the date from which that period is liable to be reckoned, the assessment is liable to be completed by March 31, 2024,” the Bench said. It said on a prima facie examination, it was evident that the authorities appeared to have collated substantial and concrete evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination under the I-T Act.

Recently, the high court had refused to interfere with the order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal declining to stay a notice issued by the I-T Department to the Congress for recovery of outstanding tax of more than Rs 100 crore. The assessing officer had raised a tax demand of more than Rs 100 crore for the assessment year 2018-19 when the income was assessed to be more than Rs 199 crore.