Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Principal Commissioner Of Income Tax ... vs M/S Vasan Health Care Pvt. Ltd. on 25 October, 2019
Bench: Uday Umesh Lalit, Aniruddha Bose
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ITEM NO.42 COURT NO.7 SECTION XII
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) Nos.7217-7218/2019
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 19-07-2018
in WA No.1203/2018, 19-07-2018 in WA No.1556/2018 passed by the
High Court Of Judicature At Madras)
PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX CENTRAL
RANGE 2 & ANR. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
M/s. VASAN HEALTH CARE PVT. LTD. & ANR. Respondent(s)
(IA No.38194/2019 - FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)
WITH
SLP(C) Nos.8389-8390/2019 (XII)
(IA No.44535/2019 - FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)
Diary No.5749/2019 (XII)
(IA No.47951/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING; and, IA
No.47952/2019 - FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)
Diary No.5768/2019 (XII)
(IA No.51485/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING; and, IA
No.51486/2019 - FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)
Diary No.8911/2019 (XII)
(IA No.63849/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING; and, IA
No.63853/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN REFILING)
Diary No.8938/2019 (XII)
(IA No.54190/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING)
Diary No.23986/2019
(IA No.126887/2019 - FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING; IA
No.126888/2019 -
Signature Not Verified
FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN REFILING; IA
No.131248/2019 - FOR PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS/
Digitally signed by
MUKESH KUMAR
Date: 2019.11.04
FACTS/ANNEXURES)
18:31:04 IST
Reason:
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Date : 25-10-2019 These matters were called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE UDAY UMESH LALIT
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIRUDDHA BOSE
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Zoheb Hossain, Adv.
Mr. Manish Pushkarna, Adv.
Mr. Kanu Aggarwal, Adv.
Md. Akhil, Adv.
Mr. Piyush Goyal, Adv.
Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR
For Respondent(s) Mr. Kartik Seth, Adv.
Mr. Aditya Shankar, Adv.
Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Adv.
Mr. Vidit Monga, Adv.
Ms. Devika Kapoor, Adv.
M/s. Chambers Of Kartik Seth, AOR
Mr. P. S. Sudheer, AOR
Mr. Rishi Maheshwari, Adv.
Ms. Mayuri Nayyar Chawla, Adv.
Ms. Anne Mathew, Adv.
Ms. Shruti Jose, Adv.
Mr. Bharat Sood, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
SLP (C) Nos.7217-7218/2019; SLP(C) Nos.8389-8390/2019; Diary No.5749/2019; Diary No.5768/2019; Diary No.8911/2019; and, Diary No.8938/2019 Delay condoned.
In the present matter, the Assessing Officer had passed an Assessment Order under Section 143(3) read with Section 153C read with Section 153A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in respect of assessment year 2014–15 on 29.12.2017. The operative part of the order is as under:
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“6. Subject to the above discussion the total income of the assessee company is computed as under:
Total loss returned by the Rs..(-) 39,11,57,305 assessee Add: 1 Disallowance of Rs.67,20,51,673 depreciation on excess capitalization to the fixed asset/non production of bills towards addition to the fixed assets.
2. Disallowance of referral fee Rs.13,05,4,604
3. Unaccounted cash seized by Rs.9,60,000 Pune Police
4. Black money expenses Sri Rs.17,86,080 Lankan Branch
5. Disallowance u/s 40a(a) Rs.4,42,02,533 Assessed total Income Rs.34,95,37,525 Round off to Rs.34,95,37,590” Similar orders were passed with respect to other assessment years. The matters were carried in appeal by the assessee and the C.I.T. (Appeals) directed that the appeal shall be heard subject to the assessee depositing 20% of the demanded sum. It is common ground that 20% of the demanded sum came in the region of Rs.55 crores for all assessment years.
The assessee then filed a writ petition before the High Court of Judicature at Madras and the impugned judgment and order scaled down the amount of pre-deposit to Rs.35 crores and granted benefit of making the payment in 12 equal monthly installments. It must be noted that on an application moved by M/s Alcon Laboratories (India) Private Limited, the National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai vide order dated 21.04.2017 had declared moratorium in terms of Section 14(1)(a) of the Insolvency and 4 Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in respect of the present assessee and had appointed an Interim Insolvency Professional. However, this order was stayed by the High Court on 04.05.2017 and the order of stay was operating when the aforesaid order dated 19.07.2019 was passed by the High Court.
It is a matter of record that as against the sum of Rs.35 crores to be paid in 12 equal monthly installments, the assessee has paid Rs.16,64,92,951.00 as detailed in the affidavit dated 22.10.2019 filed by the assessee. The assessee had approached the High Court seeking directions that funds lying with Andhra Bank be released so that the assessee could keep up with the obligation in terms of order dated 19.07.2019. On 05.09.2018, the High Court gave liberty to the assessee to approach the concerned Court, whereafter an appropriate application was filed on 03.10.2018, which is still pending consideration.
Heard learned counsel for the parties.
At this stage, when the period granted by the High Court has already come to an end and as against Rs.35 crores, the assessee has already deposited more than Rs.16,64,92,951.00, we do not deem it appropriate to interfere in the matter.
We, however, direct the office of the Commissioner of Income- Tax (Appeals)-18, Chennai to dispose of the pending appeals as expeditiously as possible and preferably within three months from today. The deposit of Rs.16,64,92,951.00 shall be taken to be due compliance of the interim order.
5We have not and shall not be taken to have expressed any opinion on the merits or demerits of the rival contentions as regards the order which is presently impugned. The special leave petitions are disposed of in aforesaid terms.
Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of. Diary No.23986/2019 Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that this special leave petition involves different facts and question of law and, therefore, it may be heard separately.
At the request of the learned counsel for the petitioner, list this matter for hearing on 18.11.2019.
(MUKESH NASA) (SANTOSH KUMAR)
COURT MASTER BRANCH OFFICER