Setback For Congress As Delhi High Court Dismisses Party's Pleas Against Income Tax Re-Assessment Proceedings

In a big setback for Congress, the Delhi High Court on Friday (22 March) dismissed the party's pleas challenging the reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the Income Tax Department.

A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, while pronouncing the verdict, said, "We dismiss the writ petitions".

The High Court had reserved its order on 20 March on the pleas filed by the Congress against the tax reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the tax authorities for three successive years: 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The party has contested the reassessment proceedings, claiming they were barred by limitation, news agency PTI reported.

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.

The Congress has also filed fresh pleas challenging initiation of tax re-assessment proceedings against it for four different years. The petitions are yet to be listed before the High Court, Livelaw reported.

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