The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by a firm with links to Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, challenging a notice it received from the Income Tax Department that sought to re-assess the company’s 2010-’11 profits from land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan, PTI reported.
In February, the Delhi High Court had dismissed Sky Light Hospitality’s petition against the income tax notice. The firm had filed an appeal against this decision in the Supreme Court. In its report submitted to the High Court, the I-T Department had said that it suspected that over Rs 35 crore that Sky Light Hospitality had earned in 2010-’11 “had escaped [tax] assessment”.
At the Supreme Court hearing on Friday, justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan refused to interfere with the High Court’s ruling. “There is evidence and material on record to justify issue of notice,” the Delhi High Court had observed before rejecting Sky Light’s petition.
Vadra and his Sky Light Hospitality are accused in a number of land scam cases in Haryana and Rajasthan. In August, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan had recommended an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into land deals in Bikaner with links to Vadra. Of the 18 cases registered in the scam, four were against Vadra’s company.
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