NEW DELHI: In a big breather for INC, the Union of India (UOI) on Monday assured the Supreme Court that it will not take any coercive action against Congress party over the ₹3,500 crore tax demand until the end of general elections.
The Solicitor General (SG) of India Tushar Mehta, the second senior law officer appearing for the UOI, made the undertaking before a bench of the top court, led by Justice BV Nagarathna, that it would not take any coercive step to recover alleged income tax dues of about ₹3,500 crores from the Indian National Congress (INC) party until the upcoming general elections are over.
The top court, while noting down the submissions of Mehta, fixed the matter for further hearing to July second week.
The Supreme Court in its interim order today said that the issues which arise in these appeals filed by the Congress party are yet to be adjudicated upon. The court added that considering the current situation, the (Income Tax) department does not wish to precipitate the matter and it has informed the court that no coercive steps will be taken with regard to (the tax demand of) ₹3,500 crores approximately.
The Court was hearing an appeal filed by the Congress party against the income tax demands.
Senior advocate and former Solicitor General (SG) Dr Abhishek AM Singhvi, who appeared for the Congress party today,said that we (Congress) are not a profit making organisation and only a political party
The Court recorded all the submissions of respective parties and adjourned the case to July.
"The submission of the SG is recorded. The matter will be heard now on merits," the Court said in its order.
The Delhi high court in its order had earlier, in March third week, rejected ithe Congress's plea challenging the Income Tax (IT) department's decision to initiate reassessment proceedings against the party.
A two-judge bench of the Delhi HC, headed by Justice Yashwant Varma and also comprising Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, had said, "there is no merit in the petition filed by Congress Party. We dismiss the same."
The high court had reserved its order on March 20 on the pleas filed by Congress against the tax reassessment proceedings for the assessment years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17.
Congress party, had told the HC 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, told the HC that there was no violation of any statutory provision or any law by the tax authority and that as per the material recovered, the "escaped" income by the party is more than ₹520 crore.
