New Delhi: In yet another big jolt to the Congress party, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order which refused to stay a demand notice issued to the Congress party for recovery of outstanding tax of more than Rs. 100 crores for the assessment year 2018-19.  The Court while upholding the ITAT order, granted liberty to the petitioner Congress Party to move the Appellate Tribunal afresh. A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav pronounced the order after hearing the submissions on behalf of the Congress and the I-T department. For the unversed, the Congress had challenged the dismissal of its plea by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) against the imposition of penalties for discrepancies in certain tax returns.

For the unversed, the Congress had approached the high court after the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on March 8 dismissed the party’s application seeking a stay on the February 13 notice of the I-T department initiating recovery proceedings against it.

The assessing officer had raised a tax demand of more than Rs 100 crore for the assessment year 2018-19 when the income was assessed to be more than Rs 199 crore.

The counsel for the Congress had urged the court to grant it some protection otherwise the party would collapse.

He had said notification for the Lok Sabha elections is expected in the next few days and the party is under tremendous pressure as its bank accounts have been frozen.

The bench had told the senior lawyer that though the demand was raised in 2021, the party took no steps to address the issue. It had said it was a “badly handled matter” and somebody from the Congress office went off to sleep right from 2021.