The Delhi High Court on Monday quashed income tax reassessment notices issued to NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in 2016 in connection with alleged interest-free loans advanced to their company RRPR Holdings Private Limited, the promoter company of the broadcaster, Bar and Bench reported.
A bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar also imposed costs of Rs 2 lakh on the Income Tax department, directing it to pay Rs 1 lakh each to Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy for issuing the notice.
“No amount of cost can be treated as enough for these cases,” the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. “However, we cannot leave these cases without imposing any.”
The detailed judgement is yet to be made public.
The reassessment proceedings stemmed from allegations relating to certain interest-free loans advanced to RRPR Holdings Private Limited.
The tax department had alleged that an interest-free loan of Rs 403.85 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited to RRPR, along with a series of share transfers between RRPR and the Roys, were “colourable transactions” intended to evade tax, Business Standard reported.
The Roys had approached the High Court in November 2017, arguing that the reassessment amounted to a second reopening for the same assessment year.
They submitted that the Income Tax department had already reopened the assessment in July 2011 and...
