TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (3) TMI 431
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....2nd October, 2019. A notice under Section 148 A(b) of the Act, however, came to be issued on 14.03.2023 on the basis of the alleged information received from DDIT (Inv.), Mumbai that the petitioner opted accommodation entries of Rs. 50,00,000/- through Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. A reply was submitted by the petitioner in which the petitioner sought to explain that he had not made any such transaction with M/s Hubtown Limited or Mahavir Chand Duggar and he has not taken any loan from Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. but has given advance to the Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. in the month of November, 2018 amounting to Rs. 65,00,000/- and that was duly paid back in installments in the month of January, 2019 and March, 2019. Petitioner's further case was that Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. was not managed by Mahavir Chand Duggar but is run by Vinod and Sunita Singhvi. The petitioner also asserted that Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. is not a share company and the same is a non-banking financial corporation and the same is a licensed NBFC. Various documentary evidence were also annexed with the reply and request was made to provide copies of the statements of Mahavir Chand Duggar....
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....ormed formality and has not met out any of the objections by giving reasons, much less weighty reasons, as to why the objections were not sustainable. He would submit that the ITO concerned had completely pre-judged the issue. He did not apply his mind to the admitted facts on the record that the banking transaction details clearly disclose the details of transaction between the petitioner and Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. and that it was not a case of any accommodation entries but a case of advance made available by the petitioner to Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd., which was later on repaid in installments. In support of his submissions, learned counsel for the petitioner relied upon the decisions of various High Courts in the cases of Anwar Mohammed Shaikh Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax [(2023) 292 Taxman 414(Bombay)], Sru Steels Ltd. Vs. Income Tax Officer [(2023) 150 taxmann.com 121 (Delhi)], Yuva Trading Co. (P.) Ltd. Vs. Income Tax Officer [(2023) 292 Taxman 598 (Gujarat)], Krishna Diagnostic (P.) Ltd. Vs. Income Tax Officer, Ward 143 [(2023) 151 taxmann.com 499 (Delhi)], Alkem Laboratories Ltd. Vs. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax [(2023) 152 taxmann.com 133....
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....) of the Act reveals that the basis for issuance of notice was receipt of information from DDIT (Inv.) with regard to a heavy transaction having taken place between the petitioner and one Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd. It further reveals that a search action under Section 132 of the IT Act was conducted by the office of DDIT (Inv.), Mumbai on M/s Hubtown Limited Ltd on 30.07.2019. As per the search proceedings, statement of Mr. Mahaveer Duggar was recorded on oath. Data backup of laptop and iphone in possession of Mahaveer Duggar were also collected. In the laptop, some excel-sheets were found in which names of various entities were found. Notice further says that Shri Mahaveer Duggar confirmed that the excel-sheets in the laptop contain details of accommodation entries provided by him to various beneficiaries in the form of unsecured loan. The aforesaid information includes the information regarding the petitioner also having taken accommodation entries of Rs. 50,00,000/- through Allbright Electricals Pvt. Ltd (operated by entry provider Mr. Mahaveer Duggar) in the form of unsecured loan. The notice clearly stated that when the ITR for the assessment year 2019-20 was perused it w....
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.... any stated amount is liable to tax because that issue would be examined in detail at the stage of reassessment proceedings. 13. Clause (d) of Section 148A clearly reveals that after receipt of reply in response to the notice under Clause (b), the Assessing Officer is required to decide, on the basis of material available on record, including the reply of the assessee, whether or not it is a fit case to issue notice under Section 148. Therefore, the enquiry under Section 148A is intended to decide whether a case of reopening of assessment is made out or not. Therefore, from the very nature of the enquiry contemplated under Section 148A, it cannot be said that a detailed enquiry and minute examination and scrutiny of each and every material on record and hearing to the assessee is necessary at this stage. Once the information which suggests that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment, a case for reopening of the assessment is made out. 14. We would have appreciated the submission of learned counsel for the petitioner regarding non-affording of opportunity of oral hearing and also non-supply of certain documents, which were made basis for information appended to notice....
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....Division Bench of this Court held that- "But where as in this case no part of the Act is being attacked, there is, in our opinion, no justification for us to intervene at this stage when other remedies which are not necessarily onerous are still open to the applicant under the Act. We, therefore, refuse to intervene at this stage in this case, and leave it to the applicant to pursue his remedies under the Income-tax Act so far as the question of his chargeability to income-tax under the Act, or other matters are concerned." 13. While dealing with the similar situation under the old Act i.e. Indian Income Tax Act, 1922, Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 'Lachhman Das Nayar and others vs. Hans Raj Puri, Income-Tax Officer, Amritsar and others, 1953 AIR (P&H) 55, held that- "An examination of the scheme of the Act and the words used in section 34 of the Act and the various cases that I have referred to above show that the legislature has entrusted the determination of facts and of law to the Income-tax Officers. A particular machinery has been set up under the Act "by the use of which alone" total assessable income for the purposes o....
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....ner of Income Tax and Ors. Vs. Chhabil Das Agarwal, (2014) 1 SCC 603 has held that as the Income Tax Act, 1961 provides complete machinery for assessment/reassessment of tax, assessee is not permitted to abandon that machinery and invoke jurisdiction of High Court under Article 226." 16. Recently, a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Laxmi Meena vs. Union of India & Ors. [D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 447/2023, decided on 15.02.2023] held that in the matter of challenge to order passed under Section 148A of the Act followed by issuing notice under Section 148 of the Act, the petitioner had not alleged any procedural impropriety, irregularity or violation of statutory provisions in the matter of initiation of proceedings or passing of any order under Section 148A(d) of the Act. The Division Bench relied upon the order passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in the case of Anshul Jain vs. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax [CWPNo.10219/2022, decided on 02.06.2022]. It was held as under: "8. Thus, the consistent view is that where the proceedings have not even been concluded by the statutory authority, the writ Court should not interfere at such a pr....