2021 (12) TMI 265

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....a Vs. Mahendra Harbola), u/s 276CC of the Income Tax Act pending before Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi. Learned counsel for the applicant submits that the applicant is a reputed doctor of district Gorakhpur. Further submission is that the applicant started his medical practice in the year 1990 and used to file his income tax regularly. Contention is that due to some unavoidable circumstances, he could not file his return for the assessment years 2011-12 to 2014-15 which fact has been clearly stated in the assessment order passed by the assessing authority on 08.12.2018. It is also submitted that the applicant's father was ailing from a neurological disorder and was bed ridden for a period of five years and therefore the ....

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....e not sufficiently deterrent and that mens rea was present that conviction under section 276CC is called for and not otherwise. In the instant case. The respondents filed an explanation stating that their clerk, one Hanumanth Rao, was not well and, therefore, the day-to-day accounts could not be finalised and the profit and loss account could not be drawn up so as to file the return in time. They have also stated that they were not conversant with the preparation of the profit and loss account and the balance-sheet and thus the delay was neither willful nor wanton. No doubt, this explanation was not accepted by the court below, but the question that still remains is, whether there is mens rea present to warrant a conviction for the offence ....