New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday quashed 2016 income tax reassessment notices issued to NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy concerning alleged interest-free loans to their promoter company, RRPR Holdings Private Limited. A bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar also fined the Income Tax department ₹2 lakh—₹1 lakh each to the Roys for issuing the notices.
The Roys had challenged the notices, arguing they represented a second reopening of the same assessment year after an earlier scrutiny in 2011-13.
The tax notices stemmed from allegations that RRPR received an interest-free loan of ₹403.85 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, coupled with share transfers deemed "colourable transactions" to evade taxes.
The bench remarked, "No amount of cost can be treated as enough for these cases," while emphasizing the need for exemplary action. The detailed judgment remains pending public release.
The Roys contended that the Income Tax department had already reopened their assessment in July 2011, examined the same issues, and issued a reassessment order in March 2013. They argued that revisiting the matter constituted an impermissible "change of opinion."
The court upheld this position, ruling that once reassessment covers all under-assessed income, the department cannot reopen identical issues. This decision reinforces safeguards against repeated tax scrutiny on settled matters.