New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday quashed the 2016 reassessment notices issued by the Income Tax Department against Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, terming the action “arbitrary and without jurisdiction”.
A division bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar directed the tax department to pay a token cost of ₹1 lakh each to the former NDTV promoters, noting that no amount of cost would adequately compensate for the repeated reassessment proceedings.
The notices related to interest-free loans extended to the Roys by RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd, NDTV’s promoter entity, during FY2009–10. The court noted that the same issue had already been examined in an earlier reassessment initiated in 2011 and concluded in 2013, after the assessing officer accepted the Roys’ explanations and made no additions.
The bench observed that a settled assessment cannot be reopened merely because a successor officer holds a different view, adding that such repeated action violated statutory provisions and the petitioners’ constitutional rights.
With two separate petitions filed, the department has been ordered to pay a total of ₹2 lakh to the Roys.
