Delhi court refuses cognisance on ED complaint against Gandhis: Key events

Aug 1: Delhi High Court issues notice to Swamy on a batch of petitions filed by Gandhis and others in the case seeking stay on summons issued for August 7.

Aug 6: High court stays proceedings against Gandhis and others in the case.

Dec 15: High court extends stay till disposal of the appeals.

Jan 12, 2015: Judge recuses from hearing Sonia and Rahul’s plea.

Jan 27: Supreme Court asks Swamy to make out a case for speedy trial in high court since petition cannot be heard directly.

Dec 4: High court reserves order on pleas.

Dec 7: High court refuses to quash lower court’s summons to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the case.

Dec 8: Delhi court directs Sonia, Rahul and others to appear in person before it on Dec 19.

Dec 19: Sonia, Rahul, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey appear before a metropolitan magistrate in Patiala House Courts complex here and get bail. Co-accused Sam Pitroda gets exemption from personal appearance on medical grounds.

Jan 2016: Swamy moved a plea before the Delhi court seeking to summon official documents of the ED and the DDA through its officials in connection with alleged irregularities in the defunct National Herald newspaper.

Feb: The Supreme Court held that the trial against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case shall proceed.

Delhi high court seeks response of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on pleas seeking to set aside trial court order allowing summoning of documents from Ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Income Tax Department and other agencies.

March: The Delhi court directed the Congress to submit its balance sheet for the year 2010-11 by April 8, after the party sought more time to submit the documents.

April: Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and technocrat Sam Pitroda challenged a trial court’s decision summoning the 2010-11 balance sheet of Indian National Congress (INC) in the case.

May 2018: A Delhi court dismissed an application by Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy in which he sought the court’s direction to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi and others accused in the case to either admit or deny whether certain Income Tax-related documents filed by him were original.

Aug: Delhi high court refuses to grant any relief to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has challenged the reopening of his tax assessment for 2011-12 by the income tax department for allegedly not disclosing that he was a director in Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) — an accused in the National Herald misappropriation of assets case.

Sep: The Delhi high court dismisses pleas by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi against the Income Tax department’s decision to re-open their tax assessments for the financial year 2011-2012.

Dec: The Supreme Court allows the Income Tax department to re-open the tax assessments of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the financial year 2011-2012 in connection with the National Herald case.

The Delhi high court directed Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), publisher of Congress mouthpiece National Herald, to vacate its premises in Herald House in the national Capital within two weeks.

Feb 2019: The Delhi high court upheld its earlier eviction order and asked the publisher of the Congress mouthpiece, National Herald, to vacate Herald House in ITO in New Delhi.

Aug 2022: ED conducts search operations at Herald House in Delhi among 12 locations in connection with its money laundering probe in the National Herald case.

Nov 2023: The Enforcement Directorate said it issued an order to provisionally attach properties worth Rs 751.9 crore in a money-laundering case against Young Indian and the Associated Journals Ltd.

April 2024: PMLA Authority upholds attachment of National Herald’s Rs 752-crore assets

April 2025: ED files a chargesheet against seven persons, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, in connection with its money laundering probe. The court refuses to issue notice to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case, asking the Enforcement Directorate to first fill the deficiencies in the chargesheet.