TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (9) TMI 939
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....and he has to avail the alternate remedy and there is no ground to by-pass such remedy. The Learned Writ Court did not go into the merits of the matter. Being aggrieved by such order, the appellant is before us by way of this appeal. 4. We have heard Mr. Raja Karthikeyan, Learned counsel for the Appellant and Mrs. Hema Muralikrishnan, Learned Senior Standing Counsel, who accepts notice on behalf of the respondent-Revenue. 5. Before we examine as to whether the appellant was dis-entitled to approach the Writ Court or not, we note the following facts:- (1)The appellant is an individual-assessee and for the Assessment Year under consideration, AY 2018-19, he filed his income tax return on 26.07.2018 admitting a total income of Rs. 8,10,410/-. The appellant case was selected for Scrutiny under the E-Assessment Scheme, 2019. (2)The Appellant would state that he is an individual, who is employed and also doing a part-time business, as being a multilevel marketing agent of the products promoted by M/s. Amway. (3)The appellant would also state that he was not familiar with the E-Assessment Scheme and he was not aware of an E-notice, which was sent to him by....
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....bility of the petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. Relying on the decision of this Court in Assistant Commissioner (CT) LTU, Kakinada v. Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Health Care Limited , the High Court noted that although it can entertain a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, it must not do so when the aggrieved person has an effective alternate remedy available in law. However, certain exceptions to this "rule of alternate remedy" include where, the statutory authority has not acted in accordance with the provisions of the law or acted in defiance of the fundamental principles of judicial procedure; or has resorted to invoke provisions, which are repealed; or where an order has been passed in violation of the principles of natural justice. Applying this formulation, the High Court noted that the appellant has an alternate remedy available under the GST Act and thus, the petition was not maintainable. 26. In this background, it becomes necessary for this Court, to dwell on the "rule of alternate remedy" and its judicial exposition. In Whirlpool Corporation v. Registrar of Trademarks, Mumbai , a two judge Bench of this Court after reviewing the case la....
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....holly without jurisdiction or the vires of an Act is challenged. (See Whirlpool Corpn. v. Registrar of Trade Marks [(1998) 8 SCC 1].) The present case attracts applicability of the first two contingencies. Moreover, as noted, the appellants' dealership, which is their bread and butter, came to be terminated for an irrelevant and non-existent cause. In such circumstances, we feel that the appellants should have been allowed relief by the High Court itself instead of driving them to the need of initiating arbitration proceedings." 28. The principles of law which emerge are that: (i) The power under Article 226 of the Constitution to issue writs can be exercised not only for the enforcement of fundamental rights, but for any other purpose as well; (ii) The High Court has the discretion not to entertain a writ petition. One of the restrictions placed on the power of the High Court is where an effective alternate remedy is available to the aggrieved person; (iii) Exceptions to the rule of alternate remedy arise where (a) the writ petition has been filed for the enforcement of a fundamental right protected by Part III of the Constitution; (b) there....
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....trate that the appellant-assessee has been dealt with in a most unfair manner. The appellant is an individual and to the best of his knowledge and ability, he has furnished the details. The Assessing Officer, while completing the assessment, false the appellant for not furnishing the statement of account of the credit cards. The appellant has stated as to why there was a delay in furnishing the details, as he had to obtain the same from the concerned banks and nine particulars called for were voluminous. It may be true that the assessment was an E-Assessment. Nevertheless, if it is a scrutiny assessment under Section 143(3) of the Act, the Assessing Officer is bound to provide adequate opportunity to the appellant. Adequacy of the opportunity would vary from case to case, and there is no straight jacket formula on the same. In case of Companies registered under the Companies Act or other financial institutions, they would have a large team of legal experts to assess and who can appear before the Assessing Officer or who can furnish details, as called for by the Assessing Officer. This may not be a case, when it comes to an individual-assessee. Especially, when a person, like an app....