The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Income Tax department will not recover anything from the Congress party until the “conclusion” of the Lok Sabha elections.

A top court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Augustine George Masih, was hearing the petition filed by the grand old party challenging the proceedings of the IT department. This comes two days after the Congress said that it got two more notices in addition to the penalty of Rs 1,823 crore.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, during the hearing, noted, “I want to make a statement in this matter. The Congress is a political party and since elections are going on, we are not going to take any coercive action against the party.” The department is not commenting on the merit of the matter and all rights and contentions should be left open, he said.

Further, the Centre said that they are conceding that IT department won’t recover anything until election are over. “No recovery from the Congress until conclusion of polls.”

Appearing for Congress, senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi appreciated the gesture and termed it to be “gracious”.

He said that all demand notices were issued in March and before for different years totalling approximately Rs 3,500 crore.

The Congress, on March 29, received a demand notice of Rs 1,823 crore from the IT department. As per sources, the fresh notice issued to the party is for the assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21 and includes penalty and interest.