NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court directed
Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI), whose major stakeholders are
Congress president
Rahul Gandhi and his mother,
Sonia Gandhi, on Monday to deposit Rs 10 crore in the over Rs 249 crore income tax proceedings against the firm.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla said the company can deposit half the amount with the I-T department before March 31 and the remainder by April 15, adding that if the money is deposited the tax wing won’t enforce its demand of over Rs 249 crore as long as the plea is pending.
The HC listed the matter for April 24 for further hearing and sought a response from the I-T department which has demanded Rs 249 crore for the assessment year 2011-12.
The firm Young Indian is accused, along with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, in the
National Herald alleged misappropriation of assets case.
It was incorporated in November 2010 with a capital of Rs 50 lakh after which it acquired almost all the shareholding of Associated Journal Ltd (AJL), the owner of the National Herald newspaper.
YI’s advocate Arvind Datar urged the HC to further relax its conditions, arguing that the company would be hard put to raise Rs 10 crore and seeking to fix the amount at Rs 7.5 crore.
He said the amount was being collected from contributions from individuals and it would be tough to get more money. Datar also prayed that the HC allow the firm to deposit the amount in court, saying it was extremely difficult to get a refund from the I-T department.
But the tax department opposed the plea and maintained that YI had to deposit Rs 49 crore as 20% of the demand for its appeal to be heard. But the HC said YI should first deposit Rs 10 crore with the I-T department for its appeal against the demand to be heard by the appellate I-T authorities and told tax authorities to expeditiously hear YI’s appeal against the order.
