The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to give relief to Congress President Rahul Gandhi who sought to quash the Income Tax order for reassessing his Income Tax return of 2011-2012 for not declaring his Directorship in Young Indian, which took over the National Herald newspaper publishing firm. Income Tax served notice on Rahul Gandhi for re-assessing his Income Tax return of 2011-2012 in March 2018. In his petition Rahul alleged that Income Tax was coercive methods.
However the Judges declined to give relief and posted the case on August 14 for further hearing. The Court also rejected Rahul’s demand to ban media from reporting the Income Tax procedures in the National Herald case.
After slapping Rs 250 crore fine on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi firm Young Indian on December 2017 for hushing up the Rs 414 crore taxable income in 2011, the Income Tax found that Rahul Gandhi did not declare his Directorship in Young Indian in tax returns.
The bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla listed the matter for further hearing on August 14, after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta opposed issuance of any interim order by the court. The ASG, however, assured the bench that till the next date, no coercive step would be taken against Rahul by the tax department.
According to the tax department, Rahul’s assessment for the years 2011-12 was decided to be reopened as he did not disclose that he was a director in the company — Young Indian Pvt ltd (YI) — since 2010.
As per the tax department, the shares Rahul has in YI would lead him to have an income of Rs 154 crore and not about Rs 68 lakh, as was assessed by it earlier.
The department has in the instant case applied section 147 of the Income Tax Act, which provides for bringing under the tax net any income which has escaped assessment in the original assessment.
Rahul’s lawyers led by Arvind Datar argued that they had received no income from Young Indian and sought an interim order from the court as the case related to the assessment is listed in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal on Thursday.