Supreme Court questions ICICI Bank for not de-freezing NewsClick's account

The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the ICICI Bank for not de-freezing the bank account of online news portal NewsClick pursuant to earlier court orders passed amid an ongoing income tax dispute [PPK Newsclick Studios Pvt Ltd v Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax]..A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh minced no words on finding that the bank had failed to comply with its earlier order in letter and spirit."Why should the bank have a doubt? We deprecate omission on its part. If they (bank) cannot understand our simple English, we cannot help them," Justice Nagarathna remarked..The counsel for the bank, in response, assured the Bench that the needful will be done expeditiously..In August this year, the Bench had stayed further recovery of income tax from NewsClick under two disputed demand notices until the disposal of an appeal filed by the online news portal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT).The top court had passed that order after noting that NewsClick had already deposited 30 per cent of the assessment amount with the tax department.The news portal later filed a miscellaneous application (MA) before the Court, seeking directions so that it is allowed to resume normal banking operations.The Court today directed ICICI Bank to do the needful (defreeze the account) and disposed of the MA."Direction is issued to ICICI Bank to comply with 9th August order of this court in letter and spirit," the Court said. .NewsClick has challenged two income tax notices issued against by orders dated November 3, 2023 and February 20, 2023. In November last year, the Delhi High Court rejected NewsClick's plea for relief in the matter, while observing that the portal had "a lot to answer" when it comes to its financial dealings, with there being no prima facie case in favour of the news portal.This order was challenged by NewsClick before the Supreme Court. In February this year, NewsClick withdrew this appeal and opted to move the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) for relief instead..The tribunal on April 5 refused to stay the tax demands. The ITAT's interim decision was then upheld by the Delhi High Court on May 10. This was then challenged by NewsClick before the Supreme Court. On August 9, the Supreme Court granted the news portal interim relief by staying further recovery proceedings until the ITAT gave a final verdict on its dispute. .Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat along with advocates Rohit Sharma, Nikhil Purohit, Jatin Lalwani, Rajesh Inamdar and Anubhav Kumar appeared for NewsClick.Advocate Chinmayee Chandra appeared for the Union government.Advocate Sameer Parekh appeared for ICICI Bank.Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman appeared for the Income Tax Department.