Vodafone Case – Supreme Court Waives One Percent Commission
Please see DDT 1509 - 16.12.2010 for details of the issue. As reported by us, “the Supreme Court had asked Vodafone to deposit Rs. 2500 Crores in the mega IT case and also allowed the Income Tax Department to withdraw this amount if the DGIT gave an undertaking that if Government lost, it would return the amount with interest. Vodafone had deposited the amount and a happy Income Tax Department went to the Supreme Court to collect the Rs. 2500 Crores, but it faced a new problem when the Supreme Court Registry asked it to pay Rs. 25 Crores as Court Commission. xxxxxx Now the Government has filed an application in the Supreme Court to waive this one percent commission.”
The Supreme Court has agreed to the request of the Government. The Supreme Court Bench consisting of the Chief Justice Kapadia, Justice Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatenter Kumar passed the following order yesterday.
Learned Attorney General, on instructions, says that the Department will not invoke the doctrine of unjust enrichment in the event of their losing the matter.
In the circumstances, charging of one percent Commission is dispensed with. The Revenue will coordinate with the Registry in the matter of transfer of funds to the Income Tax Department.
The interlocutory application is, accordingly disposed of.
Finally, the Income Tax Department is not poorer by Rs. 25 Crores!