The Government has taken the first steps towards a re-hearing of the $2.4-billion Vodafone judgment passed by the Supreme Court in January this year. Income Tax department counsel and Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman has reportedly sought a re-hearing by a larger bench.

The case relates to the British company’s acquisition of Hutchison’s stake in Hutch-Essar in 2007. Vodafone had bought Hutchison Telecommunications’s 66.98 per cent stake in Indian telecom firm Hutch Essar for $11.2 billion (around Rs 52,300 crore at the time) in an offshore deal in May 2007.

The Income Tax Department had appealed in the Supreme Court against an order of the Gujarat High Court, which had cleared the scheme on August 27. The Gujarat High Court order ratified the company’s plan to transfer passive infrastructure assets worth Rs 15,000 crore from Vodafone Essar Gujarat and six other associate companies to group firm Vodafone Essar Infrastructure.

> amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in

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