TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (4) TMI 1305
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....panies on 18/09/2012 where it is claimed that the authorized officers found incriminating material. It is the contention of the Revenue that since the assessee as well as its directors have a close and live link with Purti Group of companies, therefore, a survey under Section 133 A was carried at the business/factory premises of the assessee at Alwar simultaneously on 18/09/2012. It is also claimed that during the course of survey, incriminating documents/material was found and during the course of survey, the directors of the assessee surrendered income and gave cheques to the tune of Rs. 15 lac towards tax. The officers, assessing Purti Group of Companies, Kolkata, came to the conclusion that the appellants and its directors are closely associated and linked with the business of Purti Group of Companies, Kolkata and on the basis of some incriminating material found during the course of search and seizure operation in the case of Purti Group of Companies relating to assessee and with a view to have coordinated investigation, the officers of the Revenue at Kolkata felt that all cases under the umbrella of Purti Group of Companies including the assessee is required to be centralized....
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....s. Tech. II, Kolkata that name of the assessee finds place in the records of Purti Group of Companies, upheld the order dt. 07/08/2014 impugned in the writ petition. 6. Ld. counsel for the appellant-assessee vehemently contended that the order of the ld. Single Judge needs interference as the ld. Single Judge has not decided the controversy in right manner. He contended that the search/survey at Kolkata/Alwar was carried on 18/09/2012 and till date even after two and half years, the Revenue has not been able to disclose about live link of the assessee with Purti Group of Companies. He contended that at the time of survey, books of accounts and other material were carried by the Revenue Officers and nothing has come out during last about two and half years as to what has been found/noticed to link the affairs of the assessee viz-à-viz Purti Group of Companies. He drew attention of this Court about total turnover viz-à-viz sales to M/s. Purti Vanaspati Private Limited that it was just about 2.75%, 3.65% and 2.44 % for the years ended on 31/03/2012, 31/03/2013 and 31/03/2014 respectively and contended that merely because some stray, sale or purchases are there with Pu....
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....e. She further contended that the circular of the Central Board of Direct Taxes dated. 25/04/2014 with regard to centralization of cases would indicate that the cases like this need to be centralized for concentrated investigation. She further contended that the directors of the assessee, noticing incriminating material, had also surrendered certain income and gave cheques of Rs. 15 lac as tax against the income surrendered at the time of survey on the spot as per the statement of the Director recorded by the officers of the survey team. She relied upon the judgments, which were relied upon before the ld. Single Judge. Counsel for the Revenue further stated that all the assessment records of the appellant-assessee have already been transferred/sent to the DCIT CC-XXV, Koltaka on 18/03/2015. 8. We have considered the arguments advanced by ld. counsel for the parties and have perused the order of the ld. Single Judge, impugned herein as well as the order of Commissioner at Alwar and the Commissioner at Kolkata and in our view, the ld. Single Judge has rightly come to the conclusion that on the basis of the material noticed, it would be appropriate to have coordinated investigation....
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....up of Companies and not only search case but survey case like that of the appellant also needs in depth investigation/coordinated investigation to bring out the desired results by a common officer. 11. Admittedly, the Commissioner granted adequate opportunity of being heard twice and adequate reasons have been recorded and even such reasons have been conveyed to the appellant and under Section 127 once the reasons have been recorded and so also conveyed to the appellant, then the courts in normal circumstances ought not to interfere in the administrative decisions taken by the Revenue. Admittedly, incriminating material has been found not only at Kolkata but also at Alwar and concentrated/coordinated investigation is required to be seen at this stage. Endeavour of not only of the Revenue but the assessee as well, is of framing of correct assessments, while a tax payer needs to pay the desired tax on the income earned, the Revenue also collects due tax, neither a penny more nor a penny less. 12. As observed earlier, though the Directors of the appellant are being assessed at Kolkata, may not be of much relevance but certainly a doubt is created as to when both the working dire....
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....to effectuate the charging section so as to allow the authorities concerned to do so in a manner, wherefore the statute was enacted. 16. The Gauhati High Court, in the case of Continental Milkose (India) Ltd. v. CIT : (2013) 351 ITR 292, in a case where search and seizure operation was carried on Continental Milkose (India) group on March 9, 2012 at New Delhi and all the directors of the company were residing at Dibrugarh and entire group was being assessed at Dibrugarh since inception but were attending proceedings at New-Delhi and it was noticed that the company had registered office at New Delhi with the business activities in Noida and specific evidence had been gathered regarding tax evasion by the group at New Delhi and the Revenue was of the view that enquiries were required to be conducted at New Delhi and to some extent in North East i.e Dibrugarh, Revenue came to a conclusion that since major business activities in and around Delhi and the control is also at Delhi, the cases are required to be centralized at Delhi for effective and coordinated investigation and administrative convenience and the High Court, after analyzing the provisions of Section 127(2) held that the....
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....e to record a finding whether a decision is rational or irrational without first evaluating the facts of the case and coming to a plausible conclusion and then testing the decision of the authority on the touch-stone of the tests laid down by the Court with special reference to a given case. This position is well settled in Indian administrative law. Therefore, to a limited extent of scrutinizing the decision making process, it is always open to the Court to review the evaluation of facts by the decision maker" 20. In our view, the exercise of power under sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) of Section 127 of the Act comes with certain procedural requirements, namely, of granting a reasonable opportunity of being heard in the matter, of recording of reasons for passing such order and communicating such reasons to the assessee. Subject to fulfillment of such procedural requirements, the authority under Section 127 enjoys considerable discretion while exercising the power contained in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) thereof. Such discretion, in our view, of-course has to be exercised for achieving the public purpose and not for any arbitrary or irrelevant consideration. On the o....