The Delhi High Court on Friday declined to stay the Income Tax proceedings against Young Indian Pvt Ltd in the National Herald case, involving Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Chander Shekhar told the counsel of Young Indian, a not-for-profit company, to approach the I-T authorities to settle its grievances about reopening six-year-old proceedings.
Young Indian (YI), through its counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had questioned the jurisdiction of the I-T department on the reopening of the proceedings against it without citing a “reason to believe”.
“We are not inclined to entertain your writ petition. It is better you withdraw it and approach the I-T assessing officer,” the bench said.
Sensing the mood of the bench, Singhvi withdrew the petition, which was allowed by the court, and termed it “dismissed as withdrawn”. The BJP termed the high court order as a “major setback” for the Congress.
The Congress claimed that it had received a favourable order from the court as it can raise the concerns mentioned in the writ petition, including the jurisdictional point, before the department.
The Congress hit out at the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of “spreading misinformation” against political rivals.
Singhvi accused the Modi government of trying to spread misinformation in the media by circulating “unsigned notes”, stating that the I-T department has been “directed to investigate” the Gandhi family, and asked them to appear before it.
“This is all government agencies are doing, feeding the press misinformation when our grievance is known to all,” Singhvi said. YI had approached the high court seeking a direction to stay the I-T proceedings and quashing of reassessment notices issued against it with regard to the National Herald misappropriation assets case.
The company was issued notices regarding the 2011-12 assessment year. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, in a private criminal complaint, had accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh, through which YI had obtained the right to recover
Rs 90.25 crore, which the Associate Journals Limited owed to the Congress.
Published 12 May 2017, 19:03 IST