New Delhi, Feb 16: In an interim relief to the Congress party on Friday, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) allowed it to operate its frozen bank accounts with a lien of the Income Tax department.
Rajya Sabha MP and advocate Vivek Tankha, who appeared for the Congress before the ITAT bench in Delhi thanked the bench for a "gracious hearing".
He said that the ITAT said there is no restriction on bank accounts but only a lien.
A lien is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation.
"Very graciously, the ITAT has said that there will be only a lien on the bank account. There is no restriction on the bank account. You can operate and then they will hear me on the merits of the case on the interim application that I filed on Wednesday. I'm grateful to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal for this gracious hearing," Tankha said.
"And number two, as I said before the Tribunal, I'm repeating, Justice Kapadia, Chief Justice of India, would always say that the first opportunity of an SEC, of an independent hearing, only comes when it goes before ITAT. And today that we had seen," he added.
In a video shared on X, Tankha shared details of arguments he placed before the bench during the hearing.
"All bank accounts of Congress Party of the AICC have been frozen, which means in the coming festival of elections, the largest, one of the largest stakeholders will not be able to participate. We will not be able to take up any expenditure whatsoever, whether it is the movement of vehicles, people, yatra, or anything at all connected with these elections. The court heard me for some time," Tankha said.
"It also, I said, we have a very good case on facts. We had filed a return on time. It is being misconstrued and only for that reason, we can't be punished disproportionately," he added.
"Number two, our revenues for that particular year was 198 crores and we spent admissible expenditure that was incurred was 197 crores and how a taxation of 130 or 115 odd crores has been made on us with interest coming to 135 crores. I said, it is all I would like to argue on merits, but today protect the party, protect democracy, and allow us to operate a bank account," Tankha said.
Responding to the ITAT's ruling, Congress general secretary Ajay Makan said, "On our petition, Income Tax Department and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has said that we have to ensure that Rs 115 crores have to be kept in the Banks. This 115 crore is the lien marked in the Bank Accounts. We can spend an amount over and above that."
"This means that Rs 115 crores have been frozen. This Rs 115 crore is much more than we have in our Current Accounts," he added.
Earlier in the day, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government after the alleged freezing of the grand old party's bank accounts by the Income Tax department.
The Congress chief asserted that the party will take on the streets against the government's 'autocracy'.
"That is why, I have said that there won't be any elections in the future. We appeal to the Judiciary to save the multi-party system in this country and protect India's Democracy," the Congress chief said.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister, HD Kumaraswamy, responding to the Congress' account freeze said, "I do not know in what context the central government institutions froze the accounts of the Congress. I do not know for what reason. Because in our democratic system, even several individual bank accounts were frozen. The issue is going on."
BJP leader CN Ashwath Narayan alleged that the grand old party is trying to do politics everywhere.
"The law of the land applies to each one of us. The Congress party cannot have its way. If any violation has occurred, they will have to face the consequences. They are trying to do politics everywhere and keep making political statements without any grounds. They have always had illegal methods of collecting money," the BJP leader said.
