CIT vs. SAP Labs Pvt. Ltd (Karnataka High Court)

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DATE: (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: September 10, 2014 (Date of publication)
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Click here to download the judgement (SAP_Labs_263_revision.pdf)


S. 263: TPO’s acceptance of ALP shows two views are possible & CIT has no jurisdiction to revise assessment

The assessee filed a ROI for AY 2002-03 which was accepted u/s 143(1). The AO issued a notice u/s 148 dated 01.04.2004 to reopen the assessment. Before the assessee filed a ROI in response to the notice, the TPO issued a notice dated 12.04.2004 u/s 92CA seeking details about the international transactions entered into by the assessee with its group companies. The assessee thereafter filed a ROI on 21.04.2004. The TPO passed an order u/s 92CA in which he did not make any adjustments. The CIT passed an order u/s 263 setting aside the assessment order on the ground that it was erroneous and prejudicial to the interest of the revenue. On appeal by the assessee, the Tribunal quashed the CIT’s order on the ground that (i) two views are possible when the TPO has accepted the arms’ length valuation and the CIT had no jurisdiction to interfere with the said order u/s 263 & (ii) on the day the reference was made by the AO to the TPO, there was no return pending for consideration. On appeal by the department to the High Court HELD dismissing the appeal:

On the day the reference was made by the AO to the TPO, there was no return pending for consideration by him and therefore, the very reference was bad. Even otherwise, the said Transfer Pricing Authority did not find fault with the adjudication of determining arms length price by the Assessing Authority. In those circumstances, the CIT committed an error in exercising his power u/s 263 and the Tribunal was justified in interfering with the said order.

See also Essar Steel Ltd vs. ACIT (ITAT Mumbai) where the issue was raised whether a TPO’s order is at all capable of revision u/s 263
3 comments on “CIT vs. SAP Labs Pvt. Ltd (Karnataka High Court)
  1. it means all half baked assessment officers , tax commissioners seem flooding revenue, it is clear there is serious flaws at promotions as also at recruitment levels.

    CBDT need to suspend all such fake knowledgeable officers/commissioners till cleared by relevant authorities, failing which ministry of finance of government of india would be hauled up and even secretaries might fall under the trap of contempt of courts, as probably suo motu cases at hon. High courts and hon. Supreme Court may surface to maintain credibility of very judiciary itself, as public credibility of justice is equally vital.

    So let us see how things shape up!

    Let revenue suffer, as without credibility in public mind nothing is safe under Art 12 , after all all these institutions fall under Art 12 jountly or severally.

    It is true revenue will definitely suffer,

    • jagdish says:

      The quality of Orders in the Department as well as ITAT has gone down over the years.
      The Audit department are contributing their part, for the worse.
      No one is held accountable for misdeeds.
      God save this Country.

      • Law as such is itself based on logic and logical balancing supported by logical interpretative jurispudential culture that means powerful reasoning, that led to appointing judiciary and logicians called advocates. that means administrators can never be arbitrary in functions, that led to doctines of limitations are read into laws as laws cannot be easily followed unless very simple while law making business became so well complicated as to abide the said law calls for abidingness that agsin means need to be logical but high reasoning based not to be imposed arbitrarily, that led to appointing administrators to be very balanced men that led to huge expenses to governance.

        Remunerations are paid out of public exchequer that is fed by tax payers moneys. That means very high accountabilities are imposed on governments elected or otherwise.

        when so it is certainly has to be followed by natural justice that means administrator should check out his impositions before being imposed are to be consulted with the persons on whom he proposes to impose, that way Notices came into being as a mandatory need; mostly on such consultation flaws are revealed and flaws need to be corrected by administrator, that work calls for high understandability that means your governments have to allocate salaries and remunerations to such administrators as government cannot impose or levy taxes haphazardly.

        That led to judicial interpretations based on sound reasoning and logic that way flaws in very law too get corrected is called due process.

        that due process brought out fundamental rights in india likewise bill f rights elsewhere as also individual rights for getting due protection from any arbitrary impositions is the legal history.

        India is known for dharmic principles that means sensible logic based on sound reasoning that became the the morals and ethics hat way in law we teach ethics!

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