In the case of PPK Newsclick Studios Pvt Ltd v Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Central Delhi and Anr The Supreme Court has requested a response from the Commissioner of the Central Income Tax Circle in connection with a petition filed by the online news portal NewsClick, challenging tax notices issued against it.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih issued the notice, seeking the IT Department’s response within two weeks.
NewsClick has taken the matter to the Court to contest income tax assessment orders dated November 3, 2023, and February 20, 2023. Earlier in November 2023, the Delhi High Court dismissed a plea related to the issue by the online news portal.
The High Court stated that NewsClick has significant questions to answer regarding its financial transactions and noted that there was no prima facie case in favor of the news portal. As a result, NewsClick has now appealed to the Supreme Court.
The legal representatives for the news site informed the apex court that the tax demands and pre-deposits have left them in a situation where they are unable to pay salaries to their employees.
Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat, along with advocates Rohit Sharma, Nikhil Purohit, Jatin Lalwani, Rajesh Inamdar, and Anubhav Kumar, represented NewsClick in the case.
