In a setback to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed their company Young Indian to first deposit Rs 10 crore before challenging the Income Tax recovery notice of Rs 249.15 crore served on it.
The Bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and AK Chawla directed the company to deposit half the amount with the Income Tax department before March 31 and the remaining Rs 5 crore by April 15. The High Court said subject to deposit of the amount, the tax authorities shall not enforce the demand of Rs 249.15 crore made on the company for the assessment year 2011-12. The High Court also sought the IT department’s response on Young Indian’s (YI) plea challenging the demand and the proceedings emanating from it and listed the matter for further hearing on April 24.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Young Indian, told the court that it will have extreme difficulty in raising Rs 10 crore and sought that the amount be fixed at Rs 7.5 crore. He said the amount was being collected from contributions by individuals and it would therefore be tough to get more money. He also urged the bench to allow the company to deposit the amount in court, saying it was extremely difficult to get a refund from the IT department.
Advocate Ashish Jain, representing the IT department, opposed the oral pleas made on YI’s behalf and said the company had to actually deposit Rs 49 crore, 20 per cent of the demand, for its appeal to be heard.
On December 27, 2017, the Income Tax Department’s Assessment Order found that Young Indian had hushed up taxable income of more than Rs 414 crore. The Congress leadership had maintained silence on this Income Tax Order. But, on January 20, BJP leader and main petitioner Subramanian Swamy produced the copy of this Income Tax Order in the trial court.
Income Tax department has declared that the Congress’s claim of giving Rs 90-crore loan to the newspaper was a total sham and a wrong claim to facilitate the Gandhi family-controlled company Young Indian to dubiously take over the ownership of the lands and buildings across India. After this order, the Income Tax fined and issued recovery notice for Rs 249.15 crore to Young Indian.