TMI Blog2004 (4) TMI 4X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as dismissed. The respondent, M/s. Pearl Mechanical Engineering and Foundry Works (P.) Ltd., Ludhiana, executed a sale deed of Plot No.427, Industrial Area-A, Ludhiana, in favour of M/s. Oswal Woollen Mills Limited for Rs. 10,05,000 on February 5,1980. The Government valuer, on receipt of a reference from the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner, estimated the fair market value of the property at Rs. 18,31,000. Proceedings for acquisition of the property were then initiated in accordance with Chapter XX-A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") and notice under section 269D(1) of the Act was published in the Official Gazette on November 15,1980. The notices issued under section 269D(2) of the Act were served upon the transferor and the transferee on October 10, 1980. The competent authority, after hearing the objections, passed orders for acquisition of the property. The appeals preferred against the said order by the transferor and the transferee were allowed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Chandigarh, and the order of the competent authority was set aside mainly on the ground that the notices under section 269D(2) had been served prior to the publi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unctions. The relevant parts of sections 269C, 269D and 269E, which have a bearing on the controversy in hand, are being reproduced below: "269C. (1) Where the competent authority has reason to believe that any immovable property of a fair market value exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees has been transferred by a person (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as 'the transferor') to another person (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as 'the transferee') for an apparent consideration which is less than the fair market value of the property and that the consideration for such transfer as agreed to between the parties has not been truly stated in the instrument of transfer with the object of (a) facilitating the reduction or evasion of the liability of the transferor to pay tax under this Act in respect of any income arising from the transfer; or (b) facilitating the concealment of any income or any moneys or other assets which have not been or which ought to be disclosed by the transferee for the purposes of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), or this Act or the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 of 1957), the competent authority may, subject to the provisions of this C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aid provisions shows that the proceedings for acquisition of any immovable property under Chapter XX-A have to be initiated by publication of the notice to that effect in the Official Gazette. This is the mandatory requirement of sub-section (1) of section 269D. Under sub-section (2) of the same section, the notice has also to be served upon the transferor, transferee, the person in occupation of the property, if the transferee is not in occupation thereof, and also on every person whom the competent authority knows to be interested in the property. In view of clause (b) of sub-section (2), the notice has to be published in the office by affixing a copy thereof to a conspicuous place and in the locality in which the immovable property to which it relates is situate. Section 269E enables the transferor or the transferee or any person referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 269D to file an objection in writing against the acquisition of the immovable property in respect of which a notice has been published in the Official Gazette before the competent authority. In view of the express language used, the proceedings for acquisition of property can be initiated only by p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the Official Gazette in sub-section (1) of section 269D would render the whole proceedings illegal and without jurisdiction. Undoubtedly, the publication of the notice in the Official Gazette under sub-section (1) of section 269D is the very foundation for initiation of proceedings for acquisition of immovable property under Chapter XX-A and the period of limitation for initiation of proceedings has to be reckoned with reference to the said date. The competent authority gets the jurisdiction to make an order for acquisition of property only after publication of the notice in the Official Gazette. The word "jurisdiction" implies a court or tribunal with judicial power to hear and determine a cause, and such tribunal cannot exist except by authority of law. Jurisdiction always emanates directly and immediately from the law; it is a power which nobody on whom the law has not conferred it can exercise. In other words, "jurisdiction" has reference to the power of the court or tribunal over the subject matter, over the res or property in contest, and to the authority of the court to render the judgment or decree it assumes to make. It is in this sense that the publication of the not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (1) of the Act, requiring the publication of a notice for initiation of acquisition proceedings in the Official Gazette, is mandatory but the notice to be served on the transferor and the transferee of the property need not be after the publication of the notice in the Official Gazette. In A. Premchand v. IAC of I.T. [1985] 153 ITR 774, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court has held that the jurisdiction to initiate proceedings for acquisition of immovable property is conferred on the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner by Chapter XX-A of the Act and the orders made by the Government appointing him as the authority to decide the cause. Every error committed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner in the exercise of his own jurisdiction cannot be treated as outside his own jurisdiction and they are all errors in but not of jurisdiction. Accordingly, the error, if any, committed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner in issuing notices under section 269D(2)(a) before the publication of the notice in the gazette was an error within his own undoubted jurisdiction and was not a case of assumption of jurisdiction and the Tribunal in holding otherwise and invalidating the proceedi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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