No Coercive Action Against Congress to Recover Rs. 3,500 Crores Till Lok Sabha Elections | SC

Case Details: Indian National Congress (I)/All India Congress Committee v. CIT - [2024] 161 taxmann.com 115 (SC)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• Mrs. B.V. Nagarathna & Augustine George Masih, JJ.
• Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, Devadatt Kamal, Sr. Advs. Rohit Sharma, Jatin Lalwani, Nikhil Purohic, Harsh Pandey, Revanta Solanki, Amit Bhandari, Anubhav Kumar, Ajay Desai, Varun Chopra, Prasanna S., Nikhil Bhalla, Sumit Kumar, Vipul Tiwari, Vinod Kumar Srivastava, Advs. & Nishanth Patil, AOR for the Appellant. 
• Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General N Venkatraman, A.S.G. Ms Nisha Bagchi, Sr. Adv. Zoheb Hussain, Prasenjeet Mohapatra, Navanjay Mahapatra, Raghav Sharma, Advs. & Raj Bahadur Yadav, AOR for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The instant appeal was filed by the Indian National Congress (Congress) against the order passed by the Delhi High Court refusing to interdict assessment proceedings. The High Court held that Congress approached the Court shortly before the assessment completion deadline, implying a last-minute intervention. Therefore, there is no valid reason to halt the assessment proceedings at this late stage using Article 226 of the Constitution

Supreme Court Held

However, the Supreme Court has granted relief to the Congress by directing the Income Tax Department not to take any coercive action against them for the demand of approximately Rs. 3,500 crores. The Supreme Court has granted a stay on the demand till the next date of hearing, i.e., 24-07-2024.

The learned Solicitor General submitted that the issues in these appeals have yet to be adjudicated. However, considering the impending elections, the Department does not wish to precipitate the matter.