| COURT: | Andhra Pradesh High Court |
| CORAM: | Gudivasa Shyam Prasad J, Sanjay Kumar J |
| SECTION(S): | 271(1)(c), 274 |
| GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
| CATCH WORDS: | concelment Penalty, furnishing inaccurate particulars of income |
| COUNSEL: | R. Raghunandan |
| DATE: | July 13, 2017 (Date of pronouncement) |
| DATE: | December 4, 2017 (Date of publication) |
| AY: | 2010-11 |
| FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
| CITATION: | |
| S. 271(1)(c) penalty can be levied only where the charge is unequivocal and unambiguous. The AO must specify whether the charge is of concealment of particulars of income or furnishing of inaccurate particulars thereof and which one of the two is sought to be pressed into service. He is not permitted to club both by interjecting an ‘or’ between the two. The ambiguity in the show-cause notice compounded by the confused finding of the AO that he was satisfied that the assessee was guilty of both renders the proceedings void (K. P. Madhusudhanan 251 ITR 99 (SC) & MAK Data 358 ITR 593 (SC) distinguished | |
On principle, when penalty proceedings are sought to be initiated by the revenue under Section 271(1)(c) of the Act of 1961, the specific ground which forms the foundation therefor has to be spelt out in clear terms. Otherwise, an assessee would not have proper opportunity to put forth his defence. When the proceedings are penal in nature, resulting in imposition of penalty ranging from 100% to 300% of the tax liability, the charge must be unequivocal and unambiguous. When the charge is either concealment of particulars of income or furnishing of inaccurate particulars thereof, the revenue must specify as to which one of the two is sought to be pressed into service and cannot be permitted to club both by interjecting an ‘or’ between the two, as in the present case
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