Category: High Court

Archive for the ‘High Court’ Category


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DATE: January 28, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 24, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2005-06
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S. 147: S. 143(3) assessment order is not a scrap of paper & AO is expected to have applied his mind. Reopening on ground of "oversight, inadvertence or mistake" is not permissible

The argument that the AO has been careless in bringing to tax a particular amount which is chargeable to tax and that the Revenue should not be precluded from issuing notice u/s 148 overlooks the fact that power to reopen is not a power to review an assessment order. At the time of passing assessment order, it expected of the AO that he will apply mind and pass an order. An assessment order is not a mere scrap of paper. To accept the submission of the department would mean to negate the well settled position in law as stated by the Supreme Court in CIT Vs. Kelvinator of India Ltd 256 ITR 1 (Delhi)(FB) that the concept of ‘change of opinion’ brought in so as to have in built test to check abuse of power

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DATE: February 13, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 16, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2003-04
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S. 260A: Entire law on condonation of delay explained

Section 5 of the Limitation Act cannot be stretched to bring about a situation of unsettling judicial decisions which stood accepted by the parties. If the contention of the applicant is accepted, it would create a situation of chaos and unsettling various orders passed from time to time by the Tribunal as accepted by the parties. The legislative mandate in stipulating a limitation to file an appeal within the prescribed limitation cannot be permitted to be defeated when a litigant has taken a decision not to pursue further proceedings. A new ruling is no ground for reviewing a previous judgment. If this is permitted, the inevitable consequence is confusion, chaos, uncertainty and inconvenience as then no orders can ever attain finality though accepted by parties

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DATE: February 11, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 16, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07, 2007-08
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S. 115JB: Distinction between "reserve" & "provision" explained. Statutory reserve created u/s 45-IC of RBI Act is not a "diversion of income at source" and cannot be excluded from book profits

Diversion of income at source by way of overriding title as a principle is applicable when under a statutory or contractual obligation or under the provisions of Memorandum and Articles of Association, the earning is divested and the assessed has no title over a particular receipt. When such charge exists, the amount or income so charged must be excluded from income of the assessed as income never reaches his hands and in fact belongs to a third person. Thus, the income stands diverted at source. Diversion of income at source implies that income or the amount mentioned therein belongs to a third party and was not income of the assesse

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DATE: February 3, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 13, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2007-08
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Transfer Pricing: Dept is not entitled to challenge the ITAT's decision to determine the interest rate ALP of funds advanced to AE as per Euribor if the earlier ITAT judgements relied upon by ITAT have not been challenged by the Dept

The Revenue has not preferred any appeal against the decision of the Tribunal in “VVF Ltd. Vs. DCIT” (supra) and “DCIT Vs. Tech Mahindra Ltd.”(supra) on the above issue. No reason has been shown to us as to why the Revenue seeks to take a different view in respect of the impugned order from that taken in “VVF Ltd. Vs. DCIT” (supra) and “DCIT Vs. Tech Mahindra Ltd.”(supra). The Revenue not having filed any appeal, has in fact accepted the decision of the Tribunal in “VVF Ltd. Vs. DCIT” (supra) and “DCIT Vs. Tech Mahindra Ltd.”(supra). In view of the above we see no reason to entertain the present appeal as in similar matters the Revenue has accepted the view of the Tribunal which has been relied upon by the impugned order

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DATE: February 4, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 12, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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CITATION:
Unaccounted Sales: The entire unaccounted sales cannot be assessed as undisclosed income particularly if the purchases have been accounted for. Only the net profit on such unaccounted sales can be taken as income

The CIT(A) and Tribunal have came to the concurrent finding that the purchases have been recorded and only some of the sales are unaccounted. Thus, in the above view, both the authorities held that it is not the entire sales consideration which is to be brought to tax but only the profit attributable on the total unrecorded sales consideration which alone can be subject to income tax. The view taken by the authorities is a reasonable and a possible view

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DATE: February 3, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 12, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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CITATION:
S. 263: Fact that assessment order is silent on a point does not mean that there is no application of mind by AO if he has raised a query during the assessment proceedings and assessee has replied

This Court in the case of “Idea Cellular Ltd. Vs. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax & Ors., [(2008) 301 ITR 407 (Bom.)]” has held that if a query is raised during assessment proceedings and responded to by the assessee, the mere fact that it is not dealt with in the assessment Order would not lead to a conclusion that no mind had been applied to it

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DATE: February 4, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 12, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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Uniformity in treatment is the basis premise of rule of law. The Dept cannot arbitrarily pick and choose which orders of the ITAT should be challenged in the High Court. If ITAT has followed an order which is not challenged by the Dept then an affidavit must be filed explaining the distinguishing features which warrants the different view

When the Revenue challenges the order of the Tribunal which in turn relies upon another decision rendered by it on the same issue, then in cases where the Revenue has accepted the order by not preferring any Appeal against the earlier order, the Revenue should not challenge the subsequent order on the same issue. In case an appeal is preferred from the subsequent order, then the Memo of appeal must indicate the reasons as to why an appeal is being preferred in later case when no appeal was preferred from the earlier order of the Tribunal which has merely been followed in the later case. In any case, the Officer concerned must atleast file an Affidavit before the matter comes up for admission, pointing out distinguishing features in the present case from the earlier case, warranting a different view in case the appeal is being pressed

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DATE: February 6, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 9, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: -
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CITATION:
S. 234E: The late filing of TDS returns by the deductor causes inconvenience to everyone and s. 234E levies a fee to regularize the said late filing. The fee is not in the guise of a tax nor is it onerous. The levy is constitutionally valid

The late submission of TDS statements means the Department is burdened with extra work which is otherwise not required if the TDS statements were furnished within the prescribed time. This fee is for the payment of the additional burden forced upon the Department. A person deducting the tax (the deductor), is allowed to file his TDS statement beyond the prescribed time provided he pays the fee as prescribed under section 234E of the Act. In other words, the late filing of the TDS return/statements is regularised upon payment of the fee as set out in section 234E. This is nothing but a privilege and a special service to the deductor allowing him to file the TDS return/statements beyond the time prescribed by the Act and/or the Rules. We therefore cannot agree with the argument of the Petitioners that the fee that is sought to be collected under section 234E of the Act is really nothing but a collection in the guise of a tax

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DATE: February 3, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 9, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 1996-97
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CITATION:
S. 269SS: Transaction of loan between a firm and its partner does not attract s. 269SS. If other High Courts have taken a consistent view, that should be followed even if opposite view is possible

Transaction effected between a firm and its partners cannot partake the colour of loan or deposit and as such, Section 269-SS nor Section 271-D of the Act would come into play

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DATE: January 12, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: February 2, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2000-01 to 2006-07
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CITATION:
S. 234B: View in Alcatel Lucent that assessee must pay interest for short-fall of advance-tax if it induced payee not to deduct TDS cannot be followed. View in Jacobs has to be followed because obligation of payer to deduct TDS is absolute & not dependent on assertion of payee. Impact of Proviso to s. 209(1) inserted by FA 2012 w.e.f. 1.4.2012 considered

This Court respectfully cannot apply the view taken in Alcatel Lucent to this case. This is because if the payer deducts tax at source only when the assessee admits tax liability, then deductions would not be made in cases where the assessee either falsely or under a bona fide mistake denies tax liability. Tax obligations cannot be founded on assertions of interested parties. In such cases, the payer’s obligation to deduct tax would depend on the payee’s opinion of whether it is liable to tax, which may differ from its actual liability to tax as determined by the AO’s final order. This effectively authorizes the assessee and the payer to contract out of the statutory obligation to deduct tax at source, which in this case, is located in Section 195(1). Surely this could not be the Parliamentary intent