High Court refuses interim relief to Rahul Gandhi in tax case
New Delhi, Aug 8: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant any interim relief to Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Income Tax reassessment notice related to the National Herald case.
A bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice A.K. Chawla also rejected Rahul Gandhi's counsel plea seeking restraint on publishing news by various media organisations on the case.
Rahul Gandhi has moved the court challenging a notice issued against him by Income Tax Department seeking to re-open his tax assessment for financial year 2011-12 related to the transactions between National Herald and Young India Pvt Ltd (YI).
Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are major stakeholders in Young India which has acquired Associated Journals Limited (AJL). National Herald newspaper was published by AJL.
Rahul Gandhi's counsel has requested the court to grant interim relief from any coercive steps related to recovery by I-T department.
Additional Solicitor GeneralA Tushar Mehta, who was representing I-T department told the court that the tax department has re-opened tax assessment against Rahul Gandhi as he has suppressed information that he was a director in Young India.
Rahul Gandhi's counsel said there was no tax liability as he did not receive any income through it. The bench has listed the matter for further hearing on August 14.
Earlier in March, the company Young India requested the court to stay the recovery of tax and interest of Rs 249.15 crore raised in pursuance to a December 27 2017 notice issued under section 156 of the IT Act for the assessment year 2011-12.
The company has submitted that it is a charitable firm and does not have any income and that Income Tax authorities have wrongly raised a demand of Rs 249 crore for the assessment year 2011-12.
On March 19 the Delhi High Court directed Young Indian to deposit Rs 10 crore in the Rs 249.15 crore income tax proceedings against the firm.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had filed a complaint about "cheating" in the acquisition of AJL, which published the National Herald newspaper, by Young Indian, "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38 per cent stake".
Swamy had accused them of allegedly conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only Rs 50 lakh, by which Young Indian Pvt Ltd obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL owed to the Congress.
Former Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian are accused in the case.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
