2017 (7) TMI 919

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....y be deposited with the Income Tax Department. The said notice was issued invoking the provisions of Section 226(3) of the Income Tax Act (for short, the IT Act). 2. The contention of learned counsel appearing for the petitioner is that the petitioner basically is engaged in trading of food grains and is in the business of import and export of food grains. The income declared by the petitioner's establishment for the assessment year 2014-15 was Rs. 15,07,690/-. A notice for assessment was received by the petitioner on 08.09.1994 and the assessment was completed on 30.12.2016 whereby the income tax department assessed the income of the petitioner at Rs. 21,62,18,744/-. This amount is more than 133 times than the declared income which th....

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....ssing officer without forcing the petitioner to deposit 15 percent of the amount, otherwise required to be deposited under office memorandum dated 29.02.2016 issued by the CBDT. 5. Counsel for the petitioner refers to judgment recently passed by the Karnataka High Court in similar circumstances i.e. WPS No.1339- 1342/2017 (T-IT) decided on 23.02.2017 (Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. Vs. The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax & Ors). Relying upon the said judgment, counsel for the petitioner has sought for indulgence of the writ court to the extent that interest of the petitioner be protected till the appeal is decided by the Commissioner (Appeals) or at least till the application for grant of stay filed by the petitioner before the assessing of....

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....e AO/TRO only in exceptional circumstances e.g. where the assessment order appears to be unreasonably highpitched or where genuine hardship is likely to be caused to the assessee......." 8. A plain reading of aforesaid instruction makes it very clear that the assessing officer or the authorities superior to him have been granted ample powers for considering the application for stay and condition/grounds on which the stay has been sought for. A reading of provision shows that ample discretion is left for the assessing officer to consider at the time of deciding the stay application. It would be relevant at this juncture to refer to paragraph 16 of the said judgment of Karnataka High Court in case of Flipkart India Pvt .Ltd. (Supra) which r....