HC RESTRAINS HARYANA FROM PASSING ORDER ON VADRA FIRM
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has issued a notice to the Haryana government on a petition filed by Skylight Hospitality Private Limited, a company promoted by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, challenging VAT notice.
The high court further sought a response from the government by April 4. The case was mentioned for urgent hearing before the division bench of justices SS Saron and Gurmit Ram, which ordered its hearing as per the roster on Monday. Taking up the matter later, a division bench of justices AK Mittal and Raj Rahul Garg posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday stating it would first look into the petition. The matter pertains to Shikohpur land deal in Gurgaon between Skylight and DLF. The firm has challenged a notice by the excise department of October 12, 2015, under section 16 of the Haryana Value Added Tax (VAT) Act, 2003. The firm has also sought direction to respondents not to proceed further with the assessment proceedings until the complete relevant information or records were provided by the department.
The sale deed for the 3.53-acre land deal between Vadra’s firm and DLF Limited took place on the payment of stamp duty and other statutory charges in 2012. The firm submitted that it had not sold the licence and only transferred that of thecommercial colony to DLF after government’s permission.
Without mentioning Vadra’s name, it has been stated that in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2014 and, later, the Haryana assembly elections, frequent “unsubstantiated allegations” were levelled against one of the directors of the petitioner company as part of the “systematic vendetta”.