The Supreme Court yesterday said it would next month hear a plea seeking quashing of a provision of the Income Tax (IT) Act on tax exemption to political parties on receiving voluntary contributions
New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday said it would next month hear a plea seeking quashing of a provision of the Income Tax (IT) Act on tax exemption to political parties on receiving voluntary contributions.
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A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and L Nageswara Rao said there was no urgency in hearing the plea as the law has been in force for over 50 years and added that it would take it up on January 11.
“You are challenging a provision of the IT Act which is there since 1960s. What is the urgency? Let the matter come up before the court after vacations. This Act is going on for over 50 years,” the bench told petitioner advocate M L Sharma.
Sharma urged the court to hear the matter yesterday itself and claimed that on December 16, the government had declared that no investigation will be carried out against political parties' accounts on deposit of old demonetised notes as per the tax exemption given under section 13A of the IT Act. He said old currency notes were being deposited in the accounts of political parties and “the problem is that they would withdraw the money”.
‘Note ban economic robbery’
Escalating the attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi yesterday said his note ban decision is not a fight against black money or corruption but is an “economic robbery.’
Addressing a public rally at the University Campus College Grounds at Almora, the Congress vice president said his party wants to eradicate corruption and if “Modiji takes any step against the menace, Congress party will lend its hundred per cent support.”
“But this note ban step is not a decision against black money and corruption. This note ban is an economic robbery. It is an attack on the poor of the country," he said.
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