The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the Delhi High Court's interim order restraining the Income Tax (IT) department from taking any action against VVIP chopper scam accused Gautam Khaitan, against whom a separate black money laundering case has been lodged, saying it was "not sustainable in law".
The apex court set aside the May 16 order of the high court which had also said that the black money law cannot be allowed to operate with retrospective effect from July 1, 2015.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra asked the high court to decide the petition pending before it on its own merits and uninfluenced by the observations of the top court.
The bench, also comprising justices M R Shah and B R Gavai, said that the scheme of the Black Money Act is to "provide stringent measures for curbing the menace of black money" and various offences have been defined and stringent punishments have been provided under the law.
"It would further be relevant to note that sub-section (3) of section 1 of the Black Money Act, itself provides that save as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall come into force on 1st day of July, 2015. A conjoint reading of the various provisions would reveal that the assessing officer can charge the taxes only from the assessment year commencing on or after April 1, 2016. However, the value of the said asset has to be as per its valuation in the previous year," the bench noted in its 13-page verdict.
"As such, we find that the high court was not right in holding that, by the notification/order impugned before it, the penal provisions were made retrospectively applicable," the bench said.
It noted that the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 was passed by the Parliament on May 11, 2015 and it had received Presidential assent on May 26, 2015.