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2021 (2) TMI 1060 - HC - Income TaxLTCG on sale of property - reference was made under Section 55A read with Section 50C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for valuation by the second respondent District Valuation Officer, Valuation Cell, Income Tax Department - petitioner along with her sister sold a property which sale was apparently negotiated by their father during his lifetime but before the sale could be completed, their father passed away on 15.01.2012 and therefore the buyers negotiated the sale price with the petitioner and concluded the sale in respect of two parcels of land to two different buyers - it is the contention of the petitioner that the respondents ought not to have adopted the higher value as the price of the land in 2012 had increased manifold time and that the sale price was negotiated by the petitioner’s father during his lifetime in 2010 - HELD THAT:- All the agreements are unregistered agreements. Though it is the case of the petitioner that the sales of the properties were negotiated by her father during his lifetime and had received an advance of ₹ 50 lakhs in respect of the first property in Varadharajapuram Village, Sriperumbadur Taluk, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu from M/s.Tatia Development Private Limited on various dates and manifold increase in the guideline value by the Registration Department in 2012 cannot be the basis to countermand the value adopted in the sale agreement. It is therefore submitted that the higher value adopted was liable to be quashed. Such submission cannot be entertained in absence of any document particularly in absence of documents to substantiate that there was a concluded sale agreement in respect of these properties by the petitioner’s father during his lifetime. The petitioner’s father may also have had independent transactions and merely by looking at banking transactions in the Bank Passbook, one cannot determine existence of any concluded sale agreement. Therefore, it cannot be construed that the banking transactions of the petitioner’s father pertain to the properties which were subject matter of the sale agreements. Further, under Section 17(1)(g) of the Registration Act, 1908, an agreement for sale of immovable property has to be mandatorily registered. There are several disputed questions of fact which in my considered view are best left open to be decided by the authorities under the hierarchy of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Since none of the agreements which have been produced by the petitioner are registered documents, this Court cannot conclude that the value adopted by the petitioner reflected the correct value for the purpose of payment of stamp duty. Therefore, even otherwise, based on the sale agreements enclosed by the petitioner, no relief can be granted to the petitioner in these writ petitions. The petitioner has an alternate and efficacious remedy by way of an appeal against the respective assessment orders before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). Therefore, I do not find any reasons to interfere with the impugned orders. Under these circumstances, there is no merit in these writ petitions. The petitioner is however given a liberty to file a statutory appeal against respective assessment orders before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), within a period of thirty days from date of receipt of a copy of this order. Pending disposal of the writ petitions, no such recovery proceedings have been initiated.
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