2017 (5) TMI 1524

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....neither of the Petitioners has been furnished with the copies of the documents relied upon in the Show Cause Notice ('SCN') issued to them by the Respondents. Both the petitioners seek copies of the documents and their statements referred to in the SCN to enable them to file a reply to the SCN. 2. The facts in brief are that a search was conducted at the residences of the Petitioners on 2nd March, 2017 and 3rd March, 2017. During the search, several documents were seized and statements were recorded of the Petitioners. 3. Following the above search, on 28th March, 2017, two separate SCNs were issued to each of the Petitioners, proposing their prosecution under Section 276 C(1) and Section 277 of the Income Tax Act, 1961('Act') as well as ....

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....cle 26(2) of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital ('OECD Model Convention') , there is a restriction on the authorities in India sharing information that may have been obtained from foreign countries, except with either authorities or the persons concerned with proceedings of the assessment or prosecution etc. It is stated that since the documents relied upon in the SCN include statement of bank accounts maintained with foreign banks, the above prohibition comes in the way of the Respondents furnishing copies of the said documents to the Petitioners. Mr. Manchanda went one step further to state that there was no requirement for any SCN to be issued to the Petitioners in the first place in terms of Section 279 of th....

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....This may, in a given case, and if the prosecution or agency makes out a case in that behalf, be subject to safeguards requiring the person to maintain the confidentiality of such document depending on their nature and contents. But to say that the person being prosecuted or proceeded against can only be 'shown' such documents, but not provided copies thereof is untenable even on a plain reading of Article 26 (2) of the OECD Model Convention. 10. As regards the contention that a SCN is not required to be issued, it is obvious that the Department itself recognises the importance of complying with the rules of natural justice and has therefore rightly issued the SCN to the Petitioners, which has to be responded to by them. Indeed, for....