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2018 (1) TMI 901 - HC - Income TaxRelied upon documents furnished to the petitioner - reasoned order disposing of the Show cause Notice must be passed - Held that:- Issue of show cause notice and reply is an internal mechanism, which is normally adopted by the Income Tax Department before they examine whether or not to initiate and file prosecution under the Act. There is no statutory compulsion or mandate for the same. This enables the person concerned to give and project his point of view, which is considered and examined by the authorities before they decide to launch prosecution and by the competent authority which grants sanction under Section 279 of the Act. We are, at this stage, not required to go into the question and answer whether or not the petitioner has committed any offence and therefore should or should not be prosecuted. As per the respondents, the issue relates to foreign bank accounts and whether income or amounts mentioned therein represent undisclosed income, etc. These are matters for the authorities to decide on the basis of documents available. The sanctioning authority would also decide whether or not to grant sanction. List of witness and documents would be examined keeping in view allegations made in the written complaint. In case cognizance and summoning order is passed, the person aggrieved can challenge the summoning/cognizance order in accordance with law. A pre-emptory order at this stage examining merits and de-merits on whether or not prosecution should be filed, would not be correct and warranted. As noted that during the course of hearing, controversy had arisen whether the show cause notice issued is under the Black Money Act. We need not go into this aspect for the aforestated reasons.
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