Supreme Court: In a special leave petition filed by Cognizant Technology Solutions (‘Cognizant’) against the judgment passed by the Madras High Court, wherein the Court directed Cognizant to pay Rs 2,956 crore to the Income tax Department as partial payment of its tax dues, the division bench of PS Narasimha and Aravind Kumar, JJ. while providing few modifications, upheld the impugned judgment.
Background:
In 2023, Cognizant Technology had approached the Madras High Court challenging an order passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal directing the company to pay ₹9,400 crore in taxes in connection with its share buybacks worth over ₹19,000 crore between 2017 and 2018. However, Cognizant had sought an interim stay on all recovery proceedings initiated against it and offered to pay the base amount of ₹1,500 crore in cash.
The Madras High Court temporarily stayed the recovery proceedings on the condition that Cognizant will pay the IT department ₹1,500 crore and creates a fixed deposit worth ₹1,456 crore. Thus, this present SLP was filed.
Court’s Order
The Bench permitted the Union Government to encash the amount of Rs. 2,956 Crores comprising of Rs 1,500 Crores offered by way of cash and Rs. 1,456 Crores towards Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs).
Further, it directed the High Court to decide the appeal within six weeks from the date of this order.
[Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax , 2024 SCC OnLine SC 44, Order dated 08-01-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner(s): Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, Senior Advocate Balbir Singh, Advocate Tushar Jarwal, Advocate Anuradha Dutt, Advocate Rahul Sateeja, Advocate Pranav Bansal, Advocate-On-Record B. Vijayalakshmi Menon
For Respondent(s): ASG N Venkatraman, Advocate-On-Record Raj Bahadur Yadav, Advocate Rupesh Kumar, Advocate Amit Sharma B, Advocate Anirudh Bhat, Advocate Debojyoti Mukhopadhyay
