Bombay High Court Grants Anil Ambani Interim Protection in Black Money Act Tax Evasion Case
The Bombay High Court has granted industrialist Anil Ambani interim protection from prosecution and penalty while admitting his petition challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Black Money Act. The Income Tax Department had issued a notice to Ambani in August 2022, alleging he evaded ₹420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds of over ₹814 crore held in Swiss bank accounts linked to offshore entities in the Bahamas and British Virgin Islands. The ruling provides Ambani temporary legal cover from coercive action, including arrest, while the constitutional challenge proceeds through the courts.
The Bombay High Court, in a bench comprising Justices B.P. Colabawalla and Firdosh Pooniwalla, admitted Anil Ambani's writ petition on June 10, 2026, challenging provisions of the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Act, 2015, as unconstitutional. The court directed the Union government to file an affidavit in response and clarified that no coercive action — including prosecution or penalty — shall be taken against Ambani until the petition is finally disposed of. The Income Tax Department had alleged that Ambani wilfully failed to disclose his beneficial ownership of a Bahamas-based entity called 'Diamond Trust' and a British Virgin Islands company, Northern Atlantic Trading Unlimited (NATU), in his income tax filings. The total undisclosed funds were assessed at approximately ₹814 crore, with tax liability of around ₹420 crore; under Sections 50 and 51 of the Black Money Act, Ambani faces a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment and a fine. A central argument in Ambani's petition is that the Act, enacted in 2015, cannot be applied retrospectively to transactions from assessment years 2006–07 and 2010–11. The court noted that similar petitions challenging the Act are already pending before the High Court, and Ambani's case will be heard alongside them in due course.
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The articles do not provide details on the outcomes of the other pending petitions challenging the Black Money Act that the court referenced.
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