TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (9) TMI 1858
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....closed as Annexure B; And c. Grant such other reliefs as this Honourable Court may think fit including the costs of this writ petition." 2. Learned Senior counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that this Court need not deal deep into the matter as the issue stands answered in the judgment rendered by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Principal Commissioner of Income-tax v. K. Umesh Shetty [[2025] 170 taxmann.com 748 (Karnataka)], wherein the co-ordinate Bench held as under: "6. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and having perused the Appeal papers as also the written submissions, we decline indulgence in the matter, for the following reasons: 6.1 Both the sides in all fairness agreed that the period of limitation within which the proceedings u/s 271-C of the 1961 Act that are to be completed is covered u/s 275(1)(c) and therefore, the same is reproduced: "275.Bar of limitation for imposing penalties - (i) No order imposing a penalty under this Chapter shall be passed-... (c) in any other case, after the expiry of the financial year in which the proceedings, in the course of which act....
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....ed thus: "to begin or set going: make a beginning of: perform or facilitate the first actions, steps, or stages of:" The Words and Phrases (Permanent Edition) defines 'initiate' to mean: "an introductory step or action, a first move; beginning; start, and to initiate as meaning - to commence." In Om Prakash Jaiswal v. D.K. Mittal & Anr.: (2000) 3 SCC 171, the Supreme Court had considered the meaning of the expression 'initiate any proceedings for contempt' by referring to the dictionary meaning of the said word. It is relevant to refer to paragraph 10 of the said decision, which is set out below: The expression- "initiate any proceedings for contempt" is not defined in the Act. Words and Phrases (Permanent Edition) defines "initiate" to mean - an introductory step or action, a first move; beginning; start, and "to initiate" as meaning to commence. Black's Law Dictionary (6th Edn.) defines "initiate" to mean commence; start; originate; introduce; inchoate. In section 20, the word "initiate" qualifies "any proceedings for contempt". It is not the initiation of just any proceedings; the proceedings initiated have to be proceedings for contempt." The expression '....
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....s and fancies of the revenue or it should be hitched to the dicta of "reasonable period" adopted by Courts in such situations, in the absence of a statutory provision?...However, we are inclined to agree with the submission made on behalf of the petitioner i.e., the assessee, and the reason for that is quite simple. If we were to accept the respondent/revenue's stand, then it could end up [as it has in this case] in a situation, where the revenue could decide the date when it could trigger a SCN to fulfil, as a mere formality, the principles of natural justice, which are engrafted under Section 274 of the Act. Section 274 of the Act, inter alia, mandates that no order imposing a penalty under the Chapter i.e., Chapter XXI shall be made unless the assessee has been heard, or has been given a reasonable opportunity of being heard." This decision adopts the doctrine of delay & laches as contradistinguished from any specific limitation period for initiating the Penalty Proceedings. 6.4 After all, law of limitation, in whichever statutes it be enacted, is of repose & peace, vide Dallas C.J. in TOLSON v. KAYE [3 Br. & Bp.223], It cannot be treated as a matter of tec....
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....acy, to effect a change of policy, to formulate a plan of government. That aim, that policy, is not drawn like nitrogen, out of the air; it is evinced in the language of the statute, as read in the light of other external manifestations of purpose. That is what the judge must seek and effectuate, and he ought not to be led off the trail by rests that have overtones of subjective design." 6.6. Acceding to the contention of the Revenue Parliament has prescribed the limitation period for accomplishing penalty proceedings and that no such period is prescribed for initiating them and therefore they can be initiated at any time, would defeat the very purpose of such a prescription. One cannot justifiably assume that the Parliament intended unfettered discretion to initiate such a proceeding at any point of time, ie., even after a decade or more. There is, in a system founded on the Rule of Law, nothing like absolute or unfettered discretion. The basic principles in this regard are explained by Prof. Sir William Wade [Administrative Law (9th Edn.) in the chapter entitled "Abuse of discretion"] as under: "The common theme of all the authorities so far mentioned i....