Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. & Anr vs The Income Tax Officer (International ... on 8 April, 2015
Author: Sanjib Banerjee
Bench: Sanjib Banerjee
1
23 08.4.2015
gd W.P. 8124 (W) of 2015
Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. & Anr.
Vs.
The Income Tax Officer (International Taxation) & Ors.
Mr. N. K. Poddar
Mr. Vineet Tibrewal
Mr. Amit Agarwal
..for the Petitioners
Md. Nizamuddin
..for the Respondent Nos.1, 2 and 4.
The grievance of the petitioners is that the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal has disposed of an application for stay of the operation of the order impugned in the relevant appeal without going into the merits of the petitioners' challenge, but by merely requiring the assessee to pay the amount found due by the impugned order in monthly instalments of Rs.50 lakh.
It is beyond question that when a stay application is filed, the consideration as to balance of convenience is the more overwhelming factor, but a prima facie assessment of the matter can never be avoided.
It is evident from the order impugned dated March 3, 2015 that the grievance of the assessee before the Tribunal was that an arbitrary demand of Rs.91 crore had been made against it which was reduced to Rs.4.47 crore but without an assessment on facts and without dealing with the assessee's contention that there was no long-term agreement between the assessee and the foreign entities who rendered services to the assessee.
Since the order of the Tribunal dated March 3, 2015 does not deal, even prima facie, with the merits of the appeal 2 before it and merely directs a certain amount to be paid on a monthly basis without considering the balance of convenience, particularly that the assessee is a government owned company, the same cannot be sustained. W.P. 8124 (W) of 2015 is allowed by setting aside the order of the Kolkata Bench of the Tribunal passed on March 3, 2015 and by restoring the stay application before the Tribunal for the Tribunal to dispose of the same in accordance with law and in the light of the observations herein.
Since the appeal itself has been fixed on May 12, 2015, the Tribunal is requested to dispose of the appeal along with the stay application on remand within reasonable time of the date fixed for hearing. No coercive steps should be taken by the department against the assessee till an order in such regard is passed by the Tribunal.
There will be no order as to costs.
Urgent certified website copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance of the requisite formalities.
(Sanjib Banerjee, J.) 3