The Income Tax Department won't take any coercive steps against the Congress to recover Rs 3,500 crore until the second week of June in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court today.

The Supreme Court will hear the case on July 24.

The Solicitor General said that the party has paid some Rs134 crore in tax dues this year, and "now we have raised Rs 1700 crore more".

"Since elections are going on. We are not going to press for recovering (Rs 3,500 crore) at this point of time. Please have this on Second week of June," he urged.

The case pertains to a petition filed by Congress in 2018 challenging a Delhi High Court order allowing the Income Tax Department to reassess their income tax for the assessment years 2011-2012.

In response to the Solicitor General's statement, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared on behalf of Congress, said he was "shocked and rendered speechless".

To this, Justice BV Nagarthana observed, "You (Congress) shouldn't perceive negative about someone all the time."

In today's proceeding, the Congress also mentioned the dismissal of four petitions by the High Court on March 28, which challenged the Income Tax reassessment proceedings initiated against the party.

The four petitions dismissed by the court concerned the assessment years 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21.

A day later, Congress said on March 29 that it received tax notices worth Rs 1,823 crore for the assessment years 2017-18 and 2020-21.

The Income Tax Department has issued three more notices to the party, which took the total tax demand to Rs 3,567 crore.

Source: India Today