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2015 (11) TMI 933 - HC - Income TaxProsecution proceedings - Concealment of income or postponement of the tax due - penalties levied under Section 271(1)(c) - assessee willfully evaded the payment of the tax as per the provisions of the Act and committed offence punishable under Section 276(C)(2) of the Act, with deliberate default in not clearing tax dues that too, even after received of notice under Section 221(1) of the Act - petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the Petitioner-Accused to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.103 of 2014 on the file of the learned Special Judge for Economic offences, Hyderabad, taken cognizance for the offences punishable under Sections under Section 276(c) (2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 - Held that:- It is ultimately held that the penalty proceedings and prosecution proceedings are clearly independent and that the result of proceedings does not bind and Criminal Court has to independently judge on the evidence placed before it. It further held that it is the settled law that levy of penalties and prosecution under Section 276C are simultaneous and once penalties are cancelled on that ground there is no concealment, the prosecution for concealment is liable to be quashed automatically and thereby held the prosecution will not survive and is liable to be quashed thereby the High Court held committed an error. Here, it is not the case of the accused/petitioner that penalty proceedings are quashed or set aside and thereby automatically the prosecution is liable to be quashed. It is not even his case that even there is any finding by any Tribunal of no willful default on the part of him despite presumption against him with a burden on him under reverse onus clause to say consequently that finding is binding on the criminal Court with the analogy of law laid down in R.K. Builders (2004 (1) TMI 7 - SUPREME Court)to quash the prosecution thereby the decision relied has no application for the factual matrix referred (supra). In fact, it is though not mentioned in the original quash petition about the trial Court's order, after hearing both sides as a private warrant procedure framed charges against the accused and the accused was examined, in the course of hearing it is filed as additional material. On perusal of the charges framed by the trial Court also it nowhere requires any interference from what is referred supra. Having regard to the above there are no grounds to quash the prosecution proceedings in C.C.No.103 of 2014 on the file of the learned Special Judge for Economic offences, Hyderabad which reached stage for commencement of trial before the learned Special Judge. But for to say the observation herein no way much less, the charges framed by the trial Court, influence the trial Judge in deciding the criminal cases on its own merits from the ultimate appreciation of the evidence oral and documentary on record.
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