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2018 (11) TMI 1180 - HC - Income TaxStay petition - pre-deposit - petitioner to pay 15% of the demand as a pre-condition to having further proceedings stayed - CBI registered crimes on the Company's complaint and those crimes are in progress - Held that:- As I see, a citizen has complained about a crime: the crime of graft. An organisation like CBI has registered a crime after laying the trap. Perhaps accidentally, though, the company that complained has been in the departmental crosshairs ever since. As the learned Senior Counsel has put it, the conditional stay in an appeal is only an interim arrangement. The repeated assessments and the preconditions may have left the Company with the feeling of victimization. Its Directors have opened their mouth against the graft or alleged graft in the Department. Normally, it pays to complain. Here, the complainant is, it seems, made to pay. So the Department could have taken a lenient view to inspire confidence in the Company that it need not end up as a victim only because it has pointed out a flaw in the system, as it were. Therefore, first, I place on record that the pre-condition of the assessee's depositing 15% demanded tax can neither be termed perverse nor illegal. Yet, I also hold it is a peculiar case that deserves an exception. Thus set aside the Exts.P8, P14 and P13 to the extent of their requiring the Company to deposit 15% as a precondition. Instead, the amount stands reduced to 5% per each assessment year. Once the Company pays 5% of the demanded tax, the appellate authority will hear the appeals on merits.
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