The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued notice to the central government, social networking site Facebook India and Google India on a plea seeking recovery from them of tax arising out of their internet-based business in the country.
A division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the government and the internet-based companies to file their replies within four weeks and posted the matter for Sep 5, the next date of hearing.
The court direction came on a public interest litigation filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue K.N. Govindacharya.
He asked the court to direct the government to recover all “past and present” direct and indirect tax demands arising from business income from Indian operations of different social networking websites.
The petition sought direction to ensure proper accounting compliances as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines.
