Chattisgarh High Court
Palak Khatuja vs Union Of Iindia on 24 March, 2022
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HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
Order Sheet
WA No. 277 of 2021
Manisha Khatuja Versus Union of India & Others
WA/386/2021, WA/311/2021, WA/291/2021, WA/390/2021, WA/308/2021,
WA/365/2021, WA/281/2021, WA/318/2021, WA/275/2021, WA/316/2021,
WA/315/2021, WA/374/2021, WA/387/2021,
WPT/42/2022, WPT/48/2022, WPT/29/2022, WPT/247/2021, WPT/153/2021,
WPT/190/2021, WPT/245/2021, WPT/54/2022, WPT/242/2021, WPT/43/2022,
WPT/73/2022, WPT/45/2022, WPT/151/2021, WPT/152/2021, WPT/53/2022,
WPT/72/2022, WPT/68/2022, WPT/246/2021, WPT/241/2021, WPT/243/2021,
WPT/75/2022, WPT/41/2022, WPT/55/2022, WPT/209/2021, WPT/44/2022,
WPT/46/2022 and WPT/71/2022
24/03/2022 Heard Mr. N. Naha Roy, learned counsel for the appellants in
WA Nos. 277/2021, 275/2021 & 281/2021, Mr. Mayank Chandrakar,
learned counsel for the appellants in WA Nos. 386/2021, 390/2021,
365/2021, 387/2021, 316/2021 & 374/2021, Mr. Pravin Kumar
Tulsyan, learned counsel for the appellants in WA Nos. 315/2021,
308/2021 & 318/2021, Mr. Apurv Goyal, learned counsel for the
appellant in WA No. 311/2021 and Mr. Ujjwal Choubey, learned
counsel, appearing on behalf of Mr. Vaibhav Shukla, learned
counsel for the petitioner in WA No. 291/2021 as well as Mr. Ashish
Surana, learned counsel for the petitioners in WPT Nos. 209/2021,
68/2022, 72/2022, 242/2021, 152/2021, 246/2021, 151/2021,
245/2021, 247/2021, 241/2021, 243/2021 & 153/2021, Mr. Siddharth
Dubey, learned counsel for the petitioners in WPT Nos. 73/2022 &
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75/2022, Mr. Manoj Kumar Sinha, learned counsel for the petitioners
in WPT Nos. 41/2022, 44/2022, 53/2022, 42/2022, 48/2022,
45/2022, 55/2022, 43/2022, 54/2022, 46/2022 & 29/2022, Mr.
Abhijeet Mishra, learned counsel, appearing on behalf of Mr. Raja
Sharma, learned counsel for the petitioner in WPT No. 190/2021,
Mr. Sumit Neha, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. Gagan
Tiwari and Mr. Aman Pandey, learned counsel for the petitioner in
WPT No. 71/2022. Also heard Mr. Amit Chaudhari, learned senior
standing counsel for the Income Tax Department assisted by
Mr. Ajay Kumrani & Mr. Topilal Bareth and Mr. Roop Naik, Ms.
Anmol Sharma, Mr. Sumit Singh, Mr. Ram Narayan Sahu and Mr.
Kishan Lal Sahu, learned Central Government Counsel, appearing
for the respective respondents.
Mr. Amit Chaudhari, learned senior standing counsel, appearing for the Income Tax Department, submits that since in the bunch of WPTs, substantially, more or less, same issues are agitated and therefore, according to him, the reply filed in WPT No. 151/2021 will cover all the cases.
In such circumstances, he submits that he may be permitted to serve a copy of the reply filed in WPT No. 151/2021 to the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners in other WPTs within a period of 7 days from today.
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In view of the above submission, Mr. Chaudhari is permitted to serve reply-affidavit filed in WPT No.151/2021 to learned counsel, appearing for the respective writ petitioners in other WPTs.
In that view of the matter, there is no requirement of filing any paper-book in any of the WPTs except in WPT No.151/2021, where paper-book has already been filed.
In respect of WAs, learned counsel for the appellants submit that where there is direction to file paper-book, they will invariably file paper-book within 2 weeks from today.
Mr. Sumit Nema, learned senior counsel submits that the Allahabad High Court, Delhi High Court, Madhya Pradesh High Court, Kolkata High Court and Rajasthan High Court had declared the Act and the Notifications, which are under challenge in the bunch of WPTs, as ultra vires and therefore, an appropriate interim order is called for.
Mr. Amit Chaudhari dose not dispute that the aforesaid High Courts had declared the Act and the Notifications, which are under challenge in this bunch of WPTs, as ultra vires.
Taking into consideration the aforesaid submissions, balancing the competing equities, while allowing the Revenue to proceed with the assessment proceedings and to pass assessment orders, we 4 direct that in the event of passing any assessment orders, no coercive steps shall be taken against the writ petitioners and the writ appellants till the next date fixed.
List on 26.04.2022.
Sd/- Sd/-
(Arup Kumar Goswami) (Gautam Chourdiya)
Chief Justice Judge
Chandra