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2019 (7) TMI 184 - HC - Income TaxOffence u/s 276C(2) - non payment of self-assessment tax along with the return of income - willful attempt to evade any tax, penalty or interest chargeable or imposable under the Act - HELD THAT:- In the instant case, the only circumstance relied on by the respondent in support of the charge levelled against the petitioners is that, even though accused filed the returns, yet, it failed to pay the self-assessment tax along with the returns. This circumstance even if accepted as true, the same does not constitute the offence u/s 276C (2). The act of filing the returns by itself cannot be construed as an attempt to evade tax, rather the submission of the returns would suggest that petitioner No.1 had voluntarily declared his intention to pay tax. The act of submitting returns is not connected with the evasion of tax. It is only an act which is closely connected with the intended crime, that can be construed as an act in attempt of the intended offence. In the backdrop of this legal principle in the case of Prem Dass – vs – Income Tax Officer [1999 (2) TMI 6 - SUPREME COURT] has held that a positive act on the part of the accused is required to be established to bring home the charge against the accused for the offence u/s 276C(2). In the case on hand, conduct of petitioner No.1 making payments in terms of the returns filed by him, though delayed and made after coercive steps were taken by the Department do not lead to the inference that the said payments were made in an attempt to evade tax declared in the returns filed by him. Delayed payments, under the provisions of the Act, may call for imposition of penalty or interest, but by no stretch of imagination, the delay in payment could be construed as an attempt to evade tax so as to entail prosecution of the petitioners for the alleged offence u/s 276C(2). The prosecution initiated against the petitioners is illegal and tantamount to abuse of process of Court and is liable to be quashed.
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