A third of decade-old tax cases in HCs haven't had a hearing

The government has signalled its intent on reducing tax litigation through a number of steps.

- SACHIN P MAMPATTA

A two-part series examines the state of tax litigation. The first part looks at tax cases pending for over 10 years

A food product company in Andhra Pradesh, an infrastructure company in Maharashtra and a beverages firm in Punjab all have one thing in common: Tax cases that have been pending in the high court for over 10 years, without a single hearing having taken place. And they are not alone.

There were at least 4,000 cases pending for a decade or longer where a hearing had yet to take place, shows a Business Standard analysis of figures from the thinktank and research institution DAKSH, which has created a database with information from 23 out of 25 high courts on tax cases for the two decades from 2000 to 2021. An analysis of 320,000 unique cases showed that more than 12,000 tax cases were pending for a decade or more (33.7 per cent), without a hearing and that over 56,000 were pending overall.

Spectra Foods and Beverages, Ruchi Infrastructure and Pure Drinks did not respond to a request for comment.