Gujarat High Court
Deepak Budharmal Vaswani vs C P Meena - Deputy Commissioner Of Income ... on 16 February, 2016
Author: Harsha Devani
Bench: Harsha Devani, G.R.Udhwani
C/SCA/2549/2016 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 2549 of 2016
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DEEPAK BUDHARMAL VASWANI....Petitioner(s)
Versus
C P MEENA - DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX &
5....Respondent(s)
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Appearance:
MR RK PATEL, ADVOCATE for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MS.JUSTICE HARSHA DEVANI
and
HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE G.R.UDHWANI
Date : 16/02/2016
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE MS.JUSTICE HARSHA DEVANI)
1. Mr.R K Patel, learned advocate for the petitioner invited the attention of the court to the impugned notice issued under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to point out that the said notice is dated 30.03.2015 and has been issued in relation to assessment year 2008-09. It was submitted that limitation for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act, as prescribed under section 149 is six years. It was submitted that the notice dated 30.03.2015, in fact came to be issued on 01.04.2015, that is, after the period of six years. The impugned notice is Page 1 of 3 HC-NIC Page 1 of 3 Created On Thu Feb 18 02:12:01 IST 2016 C/SCA/2549/2016 ORDER therefore, barred by limitation. The attention of the court was invited to Annexure-B to point out that notice issued by the respondent under section 148 came to be booked on 01.04.2015 with the postal authority. The attention of the court was also drawn to the certificate dated 15.05.2015 issued by Shri C. I. Limbola, Head Sorting Assistant, stating that the notices in question had been received by the postal authority on 31.03.2015 and were booked on 01.04.2015. Referring to the annexures annexed thereto, it was pointed out that postal authority has given a certificate which reflects the contents of the notices, which clearly reveals that the same could not have been prepared by the postal authority. Reference was made to the communication dated 04.12.2015 by Shri C. I. Limbola, HSA addressed to the Manager, NSH, Shahibaug, wherein he has stated that the certificate dated 15.05.2015 was issued by him by mistake, in good faith at the instance of the Income Tax Department, which was a Government department and now he was rectifying the earlier certificate dated 15.05.2015 issued by him and the same may not be taken into consideration. It was submitted that all these facts were brought to the notice of the Assessing Officer. He, however, has refused to drop the notice and has insisted on proceeding further with the assessment proceedings. Reliance was placed upon the decision of this Page 2 of 3 HC-NIC Page 2 of 3 Created On Thu Feb 18 02:12:01 IST 2016 C/SCA/2549/2016 ORDER court in the case of Kanubhai M. Patel (HUF) v. Hiren Bhatt or His Successors to Office and Others, [2011] 334 ITR 25 (Guj), to submit that the present case would be squarely covered by the said decision and therefore, the notice under section 148 of the Act which has been issued beyond a period of six years from the end of the relevant assessment year is clearly barred by limitation.
2. Having regard to the submissions advanced by the learned advocate for the petitioner, issue notice returnable on 14.03.2016. By way of ad- interim-relief, further proceedings pursuant to to notice dated 30.03.2015 issued under section 148 of the Act are hereby stayed. Direct service is permitted.
(HARSHA DEVANI, J.) (G.R.UDHWANI, J.) sompura Page 3 of 3 HC-NIC Page 3 of 3 Created On Thu Feb 18 02:12:01 IST 2016