Guwahati: There is finally some relief for the Congress leadership in the National Herald controversy as the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine an appeal made by the Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Oscar Fernandes, in the income tax re-assessment, in connection with the controversy.
Senior Supreme Court advocates and former UPA ministers, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal who appeared in the court for the Congress Supremo Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, told the court that "mere transfer of shares can't be treated as income."
While the Gandhis' counsels insisted on issuing notice to the Income Tax department, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that there is no need to issue notice as he is representing the tax department.
After the short hearing, a bench comprising justices AK Sikri and SA Abdul Nazeer said, "Since the respondent (I-T department) has put in an appearance, we are not issuing a formal notice. However, we are fixing the matter for final arguments on December 4." The court will decide whether the income tax notice served to the Gandhis' is valid or not.
Noteworthy that the Gandhis' had appealed against the reopening of their tax assessments for 2011-12, relating to Associated Journals Ltd, the publisher of National Herald.
On September 10, the Gandhis had failed to get any relief from the Delhi High Court, which dismissed their challenge on reopening of their tax assessments for 2011-12. The verdict of the Delhi Court, thus gave the opportunity to the Income Tax Department to scrutinise their records, against which the Gandhi’s along with Senior Congress Leader Oscar Fernandes had also appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Income Tax matter against the Congress leaders is linked to the National Herald case in which they are also facing a criminal case, reports PTI.