A third of decade-old tax cases in High Courts haven't had a single hearing

The government has signalled its intent on reducing tax litigation in steps. 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