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2019 (11) TMI 404 - AT - Income TaxPenalty u/s 271(1)(a) - limitation to pass penalty order - HELD THAT:- Keeping the logic of the provision in consideration, it is an order that determines, inter alia, the rights of the parties finally, for the completion of penalty proceedings. Otherwise, in the case of maintainability of an appeal filed by either the revenue or the assessee, if there comes about a withdrawal of that appeal, without an order, the period of limitation would be deemed to subsist. The fact as to whether an order becomes final at the instance of one party, i.e., that of filing and prosecution or, on the withdrawal of an appeal cannot, in our considered opinion, be determinative of the period of limitation. Limitation, it goes without saying, has to be fixed and certain. Section 275(1A) speaks of giving effect to the orders passed by the appellate forums. It does not impose any condition whether to levy or not to levy the penalty. The section empowers the authorities to follow the appellate orders of higher forums within a period of six months from the date when the orders are passed. Section 275(1A) speaks of modification of the penalty passed within limitation. If no penalty order has been passed within limitation, the provisions of section 275(1A) are not operative. Thus, all considered, in view of the above discussion, it cannot at all be said that the limitation in the present case is governed by the provisions of section 275(1A) of the Act and not section 275(1)(a) of the Act. We, accordingly, answer the question, as to whether the ld. CIT(A) correctly held the penalty order to be beyond the limitation period by the provisions of section 275 (1)(a) of the Act, against the Department and in favour of the assessee. As per provisions of section 275(1)(a), the penalty order should have been passed within six months from the end of the month in which the order of the Tribunal was received by the Department. However, we find that the order giving effect to Tribunal’s order is dated 24/09/2014, which means that the said order was received by the Department in the month of September 2014. If the said date, i.e., 24/09/2014 is taken as the date on which the order of the Tribunal was received by the Department, then, the penalty u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act could be levied upto 31/03/2015. However, the Assessing Officer has levied the penalty u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act on 27/01/2016, which proves that the penalty order is barred by limitation. CIT(A) has duly taken all the above facts into consideration while holding and, in our considered opinion, rightly so, that the penalty order was barred by the limitation prescribed by the provisions of section 275(1)(a) - Appeals of the Revenue are dismissed.
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