Congress was not keen to pursue the appeal till recovery was initiated: ITAT order notes

Congress was not keen to pursue the appeal, ITAT notes

The Indian National Congress had not shown keenness to take its appeal to conclusion and kept taking adjournments in its appeal from September 2023, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) noted in its order dismissing the party's stay application against IT department lien on its bank accounts.

The order said "The assessee (Congress) has also not demonstrated its keenness to expeditiously settle the issue. The appeal had come up for hearing on three occasions, viz., 21st September 2023, 28th November 2023 and 5th February 2024 and, on each of the occasions, the record of proceedings reveal Congress was not prepared and sought adjournment."

Furthermore, the order passed on March 8, noted that the IT department had not initiated the recovery action for close to one year after the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) dismissed the party's appeal against the Rs. 105 crore demand.

ITAT made this observation as the assessing officer of the department had raised a demand of Rs. 105 crore in July 2021. Congress appealed against the demand before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) the same year, the appeal was dismissed in March 2023. Congress filed an appeal in ITAT in September 2023, however, it has not been argued to date.

On February 13, when the IT department decided to recover the demands that had been pending for 2.5 years, Congress filed a stay application and sought an urgent hearing, the order noted. The order also junked the apprehension raised by the party that the recovery action was taken in undue haste.

According to the order "Even in the course of hearing of the present petition, it was put across to the parties that since extensive arguments were being advanced, the Appeal pending before the Tribunal may be taken up for hearing on merits to facilitate an expeditious disposal of the same. The IT department had no objection to the same, while the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Applicant (Congress) did not opt for the same."

The order however clarified that these facts were being pointed out only to show that IT did not have a role to play in the delay in taking the appeal to a logical conclusion.

Casefile:

The ITAT on March 8 dismissed the Indian National Congress' plea seeking a stay of the IT department's lien on their bank accounts.

Congress had contended that a lien on the bank account amounted to crippling the political party financially on the eve of upcoming general elections.

IT argued that the political party has a corpus of Rs 657 crore, fixed assets of Rs 340 and crore in addition to cash and cash equivalent of Rs 380 crore. It was further argued that this IT demand would not affect Congress' activities in the upcoming elections and therefore the demand need not be stayed.