In a significant development, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has unfrozen the bank accounts of the Congress party after the party filed an appeal. Congress leader Vivek Tankha confirmed the news, providing relief to the party as the Income Tax authorities’ move had initially impacted its political activities.
Tribunal Decision and Next Steps
Vivek Tankha, appearing before the tribunal against the freezing order, stated that the Congress is now permitted to operate its bank accounts. The tribunal is set to hear the matter further next Wednesday, with a final decision expected at that time.
Tankha emphasized to the tribunal that the Congress’s participation in upcoming elections would be compromised if their accounts remained frozen.
Earlier, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge had raised concerns over the alleged freezing of the party’s accounts by Income Tax authorities. He accused the Modi government of targeting the country’s largest opposition party just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Kharge criticized the move, asserting that freezing the bank accounts of the main opposition party is a severe attack on India’s democracy. He claimed that while the BJP would utilize unconstitutional funds for elections, the funds collected by the Congress through crowdfunding would be sealed.
The alleged freezing of Congress’s accounts occurred shortly after the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds scheme, introduced by the Modi government in 2017, as unconstitutional. The court emphasized that the scheme for political funding violated the right to freedom of speech and expression, along with the right to information.
In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Kharge welcomed the verdict, characterizing the electoral bonds scheme as “opaque and undemocratic.” He applauded the court’s move, referring to it as a strike against the Modi government’s “Black Money Conversion” scheme.
The political landscape undergoes these developments, the Congress party awaits the final decision from the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal on the status of its bank accounts.