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2020 (9) TMI 338
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.... against law and facts on the file in as much as he was not justified to uphold the action of the Ld. Assessing Officer in initiating proceedings u/s 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. 2. That the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-3, Gurgaon gravely erred in upholding the action of the Ld. Assessing Officer in making and addition of Rs. 22,37,80,889/- representing the sale proceeds of listed equity shares held by the Appellant for more than 12 months by invoking the provisions of Sec. 68 of the Act by ignoring the relevant specific factgs and circumstances of the case any by relying on extraneous arguments and evidences, including in particular, circumstantial evidence, which has no bearing and applicability to the case. 3. That the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-3, Gurgaon was not justified to uphold the action of the Ld. Assessing Officer in treating the transactions relating to purchase and sale of equity shares as ingenuine transactions. 4. That the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-3, Gurgaon further gravely erred in upholding the action of the Ld. Assessing Officer in making an addition of Rs. 1,40,77,758/- on account of allege....
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....Rs. 250 Crores as additional income for the whole group out of 250 crores declared as additional income, I am disclosing and giving particulars by submitting a letter dated 06/03/2014. In this letter, I am disclosing in the following for A.Y. 2011-12 & 2012-13:- 1. Mrs. Aarti Singal 82.38 Crores 2. Mr. Sanjay Singal 55.57 Crores 3. Sanjay Singal (HUF) 21.66 Crores Total 159.61 Crores Details of the balance amount will be submitted in few time after examining seized material." 6.1 The A.O. pointed out that in the disclosure letter dt. 06/03/2014 Shri Sanjay Singal categorically stated that the amount of surrender of Rs. 159.61 Crores was related to exempt LTCG shown by him and his family members from sale of shares of M/s Parnneta Industries Ltd. (PIL). 6.2 The A.O. issued the notice under section 153 A of the Act dt. 29/01/2015 for the A.Y. 2008-09 to 2013-14, in response the assessee furnished the submission on 23/02/2015 in which surrender income had not been reflected in the return of income of the assessee group. Thereafter the A.O. issued notice under section 143(2) of the Act. The A.O. mentioned that the search folder ....
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....gation of New Delhi in the case of Sh. R.K. Kedia Group along with "Bhushan Group" of New Delhi on13/06/2014. Various incriminating documents and huge amount of incriminating soft data was found and seized impounded form the different places connected to the persons covered and the sworn statements of these persons were recorded. 1.2. The correlation of the seized/impounded data with the transactions of LTCG mentioned in the return of income of the assessee and the sworn statements of various entry operators prima facie reveals that the assessee has received huge amount of accommodation entries in the garb of exempt Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) from the cartel of companies managed and controlled by Sh. Shrish Chander Shah (SCS), Sh. R.K. Kedia and their various allies located across the country. 2. From the perusal of ITRs of Sh. Sanjay Singal HUF it is noticed that the assessee has claimed exempt income from sale of shares of various listed companies from A.Y. 2011-12 to 2014-15. Those listed companies are 1) Prraneta Industries Ltd 2) Blue circle Service Ltd, 3) DB International Stock Broker Ltd, 3) Unisis Software & Holding Industries Ltd, 4) Global Infratech....
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....rious beneficiaries including the Singals of BPSL Group. Thus, Sh. R.K. Kedia, an entry operator, has stated on oath that the various listed companies, whose shares were sold to provide exempt LTCG accommodation entries to the assessee are controlled and managed by different entry operators. The names of the listed paper companies alongwith name of the entry operator, controlling and managing the affairs of such companies are given in table below: Sr. No. Name of the Company Name of entry operator controlling and managing the affairs of the company 1 Pranneta Industries Ltd. Sh. Shirish Chandrakant Shah (SCS) 2 DB International Stock Brokr Ltd. Sh. S.N. Daga 3 Blue Circle Services Ltd. Sh. Jagdish Prashad Purohit 4 U nisys Software & Holding Ltd. Sh. Jagdish Prashad Purohit 5 Global Infratech Ltd. Sh. Jagdish Prashad Purohit 6 Rutron International Ltd. Sh. Anil Aggarwal 7 Grandama Trading Agencies Ltd. Sh. Sawan Jaju 2.2. Thus, from the above discussion it is inferred that, Sh. R.K. Kedia has played key role in arranging the exempt LTCG accommodation entries for the assessee from the above named compan....
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....2.12. In the "Kedia 2" Sheet details of the shares of M/s. PIL sold by the BPSL family have been recorded under the heading "new account". The above sheet contains the details of cash received by SCS from Kedia (Le. Shri R.K. Kedia of Delhi) on behalf of Bhushan Group against the payout made on the purchase of shares. 4.2. From the analysis of the trade details of M/s PIL received from BSE and enquiries conducted by department, it is observed that majority of the shares of M/s PIL held by 'BPSL Family' were sold to (Counter parties) entities controlled and managed by SCS. Some of these entities are given below: Sr. No. Name of the company 1. AILISH TRADERS PVT. LTD. 2 AVANCE TECHNOLOGIES LTD 3. JESHNA MUILTLTRADE PVT. LTD. 4. KINITA REAL ESTATE PVT. LTD. 5. MIDWA Y TRADELINK PVT. LTD. 6 ADDO CONSTRUCTIONS PVT LTD 7 ADAMINA TRADERS PRIVATE LIMITED 8 ROHO REAL ESTATE PRIVATE LIMITED 9 MIDPOINT TRADELINK PVT. LTD. 10 ARISTO MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT PRIVATE LIMITED 11 GATEWAYINFRACON PRIVATE LIMITED 12 ADILA TRADERS PRIVATE LTD 13 MAHAN INDUSTRIES LTD 14 ETHAN CONSTRUCTIONS PRTVATE LIM....
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....for getting accommodation entry of long term capital gains, * In certain cases the clients purchase shares from the companies under his control on BOLT at low prices. * Thereafter, the price of share of the listed companies is artificially raised by way of purchase and sale of shares through the web of companies. * When the share prices are raised to high levels, the shares of these clients are purchased by the companies and individuals under his control on BOLT using the cash received from the clients that has been layered in the buyer company/individual's bank account after layering the funds through the group companies. 6.1. A search and seizure action was also carried out on M/s PLL by the Directorate of Income Tax (Inv.), Ahmadabad on 09.04.2013 at the registered office and the residential premises of the Managing Director of M/s P1L Shri Omprakash Anandilal KhandelwaL This search action established that M/s. P1L was only a paper company without any activities and was being used by SCS for providing various types of accommodation entries including LTCG. The statement of MD, Shri Omprakash Anandialal Khnadelwal was recorded under section ....
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....ited company invests in the share capital of the listed company. In this manner the cycle of layering and increasing the share capital of the listed company is repeated several times. In this way the share capital of the listed company is artificially structured without actual flow of funds into the entities under the control of SCS. Thereafter, the prices of these shares were artificially raised through synchronized trading on the stock exchange amongst the private companies and other entities/persons under control of SCS or associated with him. After lapse of around one year to eighteen months from the issue of preference shares, the persons intending to get LTCG are allowed to offload their holding at the artificially inflated prices and the private companies under control of SCS become counter parties to such trades on the stock exchange. In case of PIL the share price was jacked up from Rs. 2.25/- per share to Rs. 87.10 per share during a period April 2009 to March 2011. A graphical representation of the share price movement of M/s. PIL is as under: 7 There are plethora of other evidences in possession of department which indicate that M/s. Prraneta Industrie....
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....mplete modus operandi followed by SCS for giving accommodation entries were confronted to Shri Sanjay Singal while recording his statement on oath u/s 132(4) dated 06.03.2014 and 19.03.2014 respectively. During the course of these statements dated 06/19.03.2015 he was not able to satisfactorily reply the questions asked by the authorized officers and finally he voluntarily surrendered unaccounted income of Rs. 250 u/s 132(4) in the whole group. This voluntarily surrender of unaccounted income of Rs. 250 Crores included the amount of Rs. 159.61 Crores of LTCG earned through M/s Prraneeta Industries Ltd. (PIL) for Assessment Years 2011-12 and 2012- 13 in the hands of Shri Sanjay Singhal (Rs. 55.57 Crores), Sanjay Singhal IIUF (Rs. 21.66 Crores) and Smt. Aarti Singhal (Rs. 82.38 Crores) respectively but no further bifurcation for the remaining amount has been submitted by him thereafter. 8. Considering the facts & circumstances it is prima facie noticed that the income " claimed as exempt under head long term capital gain (LTCG) from the sale of shares of M/s Prraneeta Industries Ltd (PIL) is not genuine. Therefore, the long term capital gain of Rs. 21.65 Crores claimed to ha....
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....per following details: Total Sale proceeds u/s 68 Rs. 22,37,80,889/- 6.5% of NET gain (LTCG) u/s 69C towards commission expenses Rs. 1,40,77,758/- Total addition to the returned income Rs. 23,78,58,647/- 7. Being aggrieved the assessee carried the matter to the Ld. CIT(A) and submitted as under: "(1) It is humbly submitted that as on the date of search i.e. 21-02-2014, assessment proceedings for A/Y 2012-13 had already been completed vide order no CPC/1213/P4/1306877063 dated 19/01/2014 passed u/s 143(1) of the Act (copy enclosed) and no incriminating material had been found during the course of search with respect to the year under appeal. (2) In this connection, Your Honour's attention is invited to the provisions of Section 153A of the Act the relevant parts of which read as follows; - 153A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 139, section 147, section 148, section 149, section 151 and section 153, the case of a person where a search is initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A after the 31st day of May, 2003, the Assessing Officer shall- (a....
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....is wide open and would cover matters reflected in the original return of income and also matters reflected from the material seized in the course of search u/s 132 of the Act. (5) However, importantly and pertinently it should be noted that completed proceedings will not merge with the proceedings initiated u/s 153A but will survive and their sanctity will , inviolably, have to be respected unless indelibly violated by any incriminating material found during the course of search u/s 132 of the Act To put it differently completed proceedings, whether u/s 143(3) or even u/s 143(l)(a) of the Act can be interfered with by proceedings u/s 153A only on the basis of some positively incriminating search material found during the course of action u/s 132 of the Act. (6) In view of the same since no incriminating document pertaining to the year under appegl i.e A/Y2012-13 has been found during the course of search, it is submitted that no cause lies for the issue of the said notices by resort to the provisions of section 153A of the Act and accordingly the said notices are void ab-initio rendering them infructuous. (7) In this connection reference may also be made ....
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....s pending assessments are concerned, the jurisdiction to make the original assessment and the assessment under Section 153A merges into one. Only one assessment shall be made separately for each AY on the basis of the findings of the search and any other material existing or brought on the record of the A.O. vii. Completed assessments can be interfered with by the AO while making the assessment under Section 153A only on the basis of some incriminating material unearthed during the course of search or requisition of documents or undisclosed income or property discovered in the course of search which were not produced or not already disclosed or made known in the course of original assessment (8) Since in the instant case since no incriminating documents/material or information of any sort has been unearthed/discovered in the search operation u/s 132A of the Act the completed assessments cannot be interfered with and accordingly the assessment order is bad in law void and infructuous. In this connection, Your Honour's attention is also invited to the following decided case laws: - > Commissioner of Income -tax vs Anil Kumar Bhatia [(2013) 352 ITR 493 (....
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....ary value on want of being material under section 142(3) of the Act and having no presumptive evidentiary value under section 292 C of the Act for the lack of having been discovered during the course of search under section 132 of the Act and such pre existing departmental data thus having no evidentiary value could not have been utilized as legally admissible tangible material for recording satisfaction in as much as the AO also knew that the notices under section 131 of the Act to the persons from whom such pre existing material had been found, had not responded to his summons, therefore, the said material could not have been relied upon for fastening any such tax liability either in the hands of the individual assessees in which case the search was undertaken or in the case of the present assessee, as such the aforesaid material was not information or evidence based on which the AO could have arrived at a belief of escapement of income since the same had no live link or nexus with the reasons recorded and escapement of income. 10.1 It was submitted that the basis and fundamental requirement to invoke the provisions of Section 147 of the Act for the purpose of validity of the ....
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....oking Ltd. [(2010) 325 ITR 285 (Delhi)]; * Pr. CIT Vs. G&G Pharma India Ltd. [(2016) 384 ITR 147 (Delhi)] 10.3 It was stated that the reassessment proceedings initiated merely on the basis of the information provided by external source without any independent application of mind by the AO were void-ab-initio. The reliance was placed on the following case laws: - ITO Vs. M/s. Softline Creations (P) Ltd. (in ITA No. 744/DeI/2012) - CIT Vs. Gangeshwari Metal Pvt. Ltd. (2014) 264 CTR 277 (Del HC) - M/s. Khatri Projects Pvt. Ltd. Vs. ITO (I.T.A. no. 4353/Del/2016) - M/s. Devansh Exports Vs. ACIT (I.T.A. No. 2178/Kol/2017) - Moti Adhesive P. Ltd. Vs. ITO (ITA No. 3133/Del/20I8) - CIT Vs. Oasis Hospitalities Pvt. Ltd. (2011) 333 ITR 119 (Del HC) - CIT Vs. Fair Invest Ltd. (2013) 357 ITR 146 (Del HC) - Sarthak Securities Co. Ltd. Vs. ITO 329 ITR 110 (Delhi HC) - Deeparaj Hospital (P) Ltd. Vs. ITO, 41/Agra/2017 dt. 01.06.2018 (Agra Trib) - ITO Vs. Reliance Corporation (2017) 55 ITR 69 (SN) (Mum) (Trib) - PCIT Vs. RMG Polyvinyl (I) Ltd. (2017) 83 taxmann.com 348 (Delhi HC) ....
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....ssessee while filing returns of income and in these circumstances such confessions during the course of search and seizure and survey operations do serve any useful purpose or have any evidentiary value, therefore, the offer of additional income of Rs. 250 Crores and subsequent bifurcation thereof to the extent of Rs. 159.61 Crores made by Shri Sanjay Singal in the course of his statement recorded under section 132(4)(and subsequently withdrawn while filing returns in response to notice u/s 153A of the Act do not as per the clear mandate of the CBDT, constitute credible evidence for the purpose of reopening / reagitating completed proceedings. It was submitted that the said statement of Shri Sanjay Singal was also withdrawn before the recoding of reasons under section 147 of the Act in the assessee's case and that the department had not pointed out any incriminating material to prove that such withdrawal / retraction was not valid. Therefore such a statement being withdrawn and thus nonexistent on the date of recoding of satisfaction under section 147 of the Act, could not have been used to say that there had been any escapement of income warranting the notice under section 148 of ....
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.... Para 2.1 l.Pg. 78 Para 3.13, Pg. 10 Para 2.11 (12th line onwards), Pg. 79 Para 3.14, Pg. 10 Para 2.12, Pg. 79 Para 3.15, Pg. 11 Para 2.13, Pg. 80 Para 3.16, Pg. 11 Para 2.14, Pg. 81 Para 3.17, Pg. 12 Para 2.15 & 2.16, Pg. 81 Para 3.19, Pg. 13 Para 2.17, Pg. 82 Para 4.1 to 4.9, Pgs. 14-17 Para 3 Pg. 86 - annexure to the 153A Order (SCN) Para 5, Pg. 17 Paras 4,4.1 to 4.22 Pgs. 83-89 Para 6.1, Pg. 18 Para 5, Pg. 89 Para 6.2, Pg. 18 Para 5.1, Pg. 90 Para 6.3, Pg. 19 Para 5.2, Pg. 90 Para 6.4, Pg. 20 Para 5.3, Pg. 91 Para 7.1, Pg. 20 Para 6, Pgs. 91-92 Para 7.3, Pg. 21 Para 6.1, Pg. 92 Para 7.4, Pg. 21 Para 6.2 Pg. 93 Para 7.5, Pg. 22 Para 6.3, Pg. 93 Para 7.6, Pg. 22 Para 6.4 Pg. 94 Para 7.8, Pg. 22 Para 6.5, Pg. 95 Para 7.9, Pg. 23 Para 6.6, Pg. 95 Para 8, Pg. 23 Para 2.9, Pg. 128 10.7 It was emphasized that the assessment in the case of the assessee for the A.Y. 2011-12 to 2013-14 stood completed under section 143(1) of the Act and the time limit for issuing notices under section 143(2) of the Act stood expired as on the date of reopening of the assessment an....
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.... disclose the primary facts required for the purposes of assessing its case and such "reason to believe" for the purposes of reopening the assessment under section 147 of the Act r.w.s 148 of the Act cannot be based on surmises, conjectures or occasioned by a change in opinion but must be based on cogent material which establishes a live casual nexus between the information and inference so drawn by the AO. Reliance was placed on the judgment of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of CIT-II Vs. Multiplex Trading and Industrial Co. Ltd. [2015] 63 taxmann.com 170(Delhi). It was contented that the reasons recorded by the AO were not reasonable and the same were vague in nature to establish that the income of the assessee had escaped assessment for reopening the assessment under section 148 of the Act. Therefore, the reassessment proceedings in the assessee's case were bad in law, void ab-initio and consequent addition were unwarranted, unsustainable and deserves to be quashed. 11. In his rival submission the Ld. Standing Counsel strongly supported the impugned order passed by the Ld. CIT(A) and further submitted that the AO had the information that the assessee had wrongly cla....
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....isfaction of the AO of searched person and the two sections i.e; 147 & 153 C of the Act operate quite differently. And that the scheme of the Act does not suggest that mere search action revealing incriminating material against the person other than searched person would automatically oust the power of the AO over the assessee concerned under section 147 of the Act. Therefore the action of the AO under section 147 of the Act in the assessee's case was within the four corners of law and could not be faulted. 13. It was further stated that in the assessee's case where the onerous proceedings under section 153C of the Act has not been invoked and could not possibly be invoked, there was no impediment of initiating the proceedings under section 147 of the Act by the AO. Reliance was placed on the decision of the ITAT, Ahmedabad Bench "B" in the case of Shailesh S. Patel Vs. ITO, Ward-5, Palampur reported at [2018] 97 taxmann.com 570, copy of the same was furnished which is placed on record. 14. We have considered the submissions of both the parties and perused the material available on the record. In the present case, it is not in dispute that a search and seizure operation under....
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....which shows that all the material on the basis of which the reopening under section 147 of the Act was done, was already available on the record, as A.O. himself admitted that the assessee claimed the LTCG as exempt. Therefore at the most if the addition was required to be made that could have been done in the regular assessment particularly when the notice under section 143(2) had already been issued to the assessee. However the A.O. chose to issue the notice under section 148 of the Act on the basis of the information received from Directorate of Investigation Wing, Ahmedabad & Delhi etc. 15.1. On the issue relating to the reopening under section 148 of the Act on the basis of information received from the Investigation Wing, the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of Principle Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. G And G Pharma India Ltd. (supra) held as under: "The basic requirement of law for reopening an assessment is application of mind by the Assessing Officer, to the materials produced prior to reopening the assessment, to conclude that he has reason to believe that income has escaped assessment. Unless that basic jurisdictional requirement is satisfied a post m....
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....he Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer was required to form an opinion before he proceeded to issue a notice. The validity of reasons, which were supposed to sustain the formation of an opinion, was challengeable. The reasons to believe were required to be recorded by the Assessing Officer. Once the ingredients of section 147 were fulfilled, the Assessing Officer was competent in law to initiate the proceedings under section 147. The Assessing Officer was aware of the existence of the four companies with whom the assessee had entered into transaction. Both the orders showed that the Assessing Officer was made aware of the situation by the investigation wing and was no mention that these companies were fictitious companies. Neither the reasons in the initial notice nor the communication providing reasons remotely indicated independent application of mind. Though conclusive proof was not germane at this stage the formation of belief must be on the base or foundation or platform of prudence which a reasonable person was required to apply. From the perusal of the reasons recorded and the order of rejection objections, the names of the companies were available with the aut....
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....assessment in assessee's case was based solely on the borrowed satisfaction which is clear from the reasons recorded in the body of the assessment order by the A.O. wherein the facts recorded in the assessment orders passed under section 153A of the Act in the cases of Shri Sanjay Singal, Smt. Aarti Singal and Shri Aniket Singal had been mentioned which is clear from the details submitted by the assessee in the form of the chart reproduced in the former part of this order at page nos. 18 and 19. 17. From the above said facts it would be clear that the reopening in the assessee's case by the A.O. was merely based on the borrowed satisfaction drawn from the cases of Shri Sanjay Singal, Smt. Aarti Singal, Shri Aniket Singal which was not sufficient for the purposes of sustaining any addition made under section 147 r.w.s 148 of the Act. In the instant case the A.O. in the reasons recorded has mentioned that the search conducted on numerous entry operators and their beneficiaries revealed that the assessee had received huge amount of accommodation entries in the garb of exempt LTCG. Therefore, if any action was required to be done on the basis of certain documents found from other pe....
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....vail and have primacy. Once assessment has been framed under section 158BA of the Act in relation to undisclosed income for the block period as a result of search there is no question of the Assessing Officer issuing notice under section 148 of the Act for reopening such assessment as the said concept is repugnant to the special scheme of assessment of undisclosed income for the block period. The first proviso under section 158BC(a) of the Act specifically provides that no notice under section 148 of the Act is required to be issued for the purpose of proceedings under Chapter XIV-B. 17.2 On a similar issue the Coordinate Bench of ITAT Delhi Bench "A" in the case of Shri Adarsh Aggarwal Delhi Vs. ITO, Ward-61, Delhi in ITA No. 777/Delhi/19 for the A.Y. 2010-11 vide order dt. 14/01/2020 by following the decisions of ITAT Bench Visakhapatnam in the case of G. Koteswar Rao and ITAT Amritsar Bench in the case of ITO Vs. Arun Kumar Kapoor (2011)140 TTJ 249 (Asr) held in para 8.2 & 8.3 as under: 8.2. Since Shri Naresh Sabharwal has retracted from the fact of taking any loan from assessee and genuineness of the agreement is itself in doubt which was found during the course of ....
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....as justified in following the ratio laid down by the Supreme court in the case of Manish Maheshwari v. Asstt. CIT [2007] 289 ITR 341 / 159 Taxman 258 wherein it has been held that if the procedure laid down in section 158BD is not followed, block assessment proceedings would be illegal. The Commissioner (Appeals) has correctly observed that the provisions of section 153C are exactly similar to the provisions of section 158BD in block assessment proceedings. Thus, considering the entire facts and the circumstances of the case, the Commissioner (Appeals) was fully justified in quashing the reassessment order." 8.3. The other decisions relied upon by the Learned Counsel for the Assessee are on the same proposition. Considering the facts of the case in the light of above decisions, it is clear that loan agreement was found during the course of search in the case of Shri Naresh Sabharwal which is handed-over to the A.O. of the assessee and addition is made only on that basis. Therefore, there was no justification for the A.O. to have been initiated proceedings under section 147/148 of the I.T. Act. The correct course of action would have been to proceed against the assessee und....
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....o the fact that rule 34(5) of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Rules 1963, which deals with pronouncement of orders, provides as follows: (5) The pronouncement may be in any of the following manners :- (a) The Bench may pronounce the order immediately upon the conclusion of the hearing. (b) In case where the order is not pronounced immediately on the conclusion of the hearing, the Bench shall give a date for pronouncement. (c) In a case where no date of pronouncement is given by the Bench, every endeavour shall be made by the Bench to pronounce the order within 60 days from the date on which the hearing of the case was concluded but, where it is not practicable so to do on the ground of exceptional and extraordinary circumstances of the case, the Bench shall fix a future day for pronouncement of the order, and such date shall not ordinarily (emphasis supplied by us now) be a day beyond a further period of 30 days and due notice of the day so fixed shall be given on the notice board. 8. Quite clearly, "ordinarily" the order on an appeal should be pronounced by the bench within no more than 90 days from the date of concluding the hearing.....
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.... India and vide order dated 6.5.2020 read with order dated 23.3.2020, extended the limitation to exclude not only this lockdown period but also a few more days prior to, and after, the lockdown by observing that "In case the limitation has expired after 15.03.2020 then the period from 15.03.2020 till the date on which the lockdown is lifted in the jurisdictional area where the dispute lies or where the cause of action arises shall be extended for a period of 15 days after the lifting of lockdown". Hon'ble Bombay High Court, in an order dated 15th April 2020, has, besides extending the validity of all interim orders, has also observed that, "It is also clarified that while calculating time for disposal of matters made time-bound by this Court, the period for which the order dated 26th March 2020 continues to operate shall be added and time shall stand extended accordingly", and also observed that "arrangement continued by an order dated 26th March 2020 till 30th April 2020 shall continue further till 15th June 2020". It has been an unprecedented situation not only in India but all over the world. Government of India has, vide notification dated 19th February 2020, taken the stand th....
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.... remain in force. In our considered view, even without the words "ordinarily", in the light of the above analysis of the legal position, the period during which lockout was in force is to excluded for the purpose of time limits set out in rule 34(5) of the Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1963. Viewed thus, the exception, to 90-day time-limit for pronouncement of orders, inherent in rule 34(5)(c), with respect to the pronouncement of orders within ninety days, clearly comes into play in the present case. Of course, there is no, and there cannot be any, bar on the discretion of the benches to refix the matters for clarifications because of considerable time lag between the point of time when the hearing is concluded and the point of time when the order thereon is being finalized, but then, in our considered view, no such exercise was required to be carried out on the facts of this case. 22. In the result, appeals of the assessee are allowed. (Order pronounced in the open Court on 19/06/2020 ) ============= Document 1 Sr.No. Name Persons of the Association with SCS 3 Shirish Chander Shah (SCS) Rajan Kachalia Singh Main person handling the accounting ....