The Income Tax Department has filed a caveat in the Bombay High Court with regard to the Vodafone tax case. A caveat is an application moved by an entity to ensure that the court does not pass any order until the petition is heard. The dispute concerns UKbased Vodafone Group’s acquisition of a 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar from the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International in February 2007. Asserting that it has the jurisdiction to tax Vodafone’s $11.2 billion deal with Hutchison in 2007, the department stated that the deal had been designed in such a manner that it could not be taxed in the country. Claiming that Indian authorities have no jurisdiction to tax it over the deal, Vodafone had moved the Supreme Court in January 2009, but the apex court had refused to intervene in the matter and had directed the Income Tax Department to revert on its jurisdiction.
