New Delhi: The Delhi high court has stayed the income tax proceedings against public policy think tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR), The Indian Express has reported. CPR had approached the high court against notices issued by the Income Tax Department.
“According to us, the matter requires examination. Besides this, as noticed above, it is, at least, prima facie, evident to us that Section 149 of the (Income Tax) Act, as amended, may not be applicable… In the meanwhile, there shall be a stay on the continuation of the reassessment proceedings, till further directions of the court,” a division bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Girish Kathpalia said on May 24.
The court issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle 14 and another respondent, the newspaper reported, and listed the matter for hearing on November 22.
In September 2022, the I-T Department had conducted a ‘survey’ at CPR’s office in Delhi. In February 2023, the Union home minister had suspended CPR’s Foreign Contributions Regulation Act licence. The organisation had said then that it was in complete compliance with the law.
According to Bar and Bench, senior advocate Arvind P. Datar appeared for CPR and said that the tax reassessment relates to the assessment year 2016-17 and the proceedings began after a survey conducted by the IT authorities at the CPR premises. He argued that authorities did not furnish the entire survey report to the think tank. He said that this was in violation of principles of natural justice.
“Datar had argued that the amended Section 149 of the Act (which came into effect April 1) was applied to CPR, although the transaction related to AY (assessment year) 2016-17. Section 149(1)(b) states that no notice under Section 148 for the relevant AY can be issued if three years, but not more than 10 years, have elapsed from the end of the relevant AY, unless the Assessing Officer has evidence that income of Rs 50 lakh or more has escaped tax assessment for that year,” The Indian Express reported.
CPR is at present chaired by former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor and political scientist Meenakshi Gopinath.
Yamini Aiyar is its president and chief executive. Among other board members are former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, IIM Ahmedabad professor Rama Bijapurkar and Supreme Court advocate Shyam Divan.
