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2021 (3) TMI 1170 - HC - Income TaxIntra-court appeal against rejection of Contempt proceedings against the IRS officer / Deputy Commission of Income Tax - Prosecution for offence punishable under Section 276C - undisclosed deposit in a foreign bank account - appellant filed a petition under Section 279(1) of the I.T.Act for compounding the offence - HELD THAT:- Admittedly, the learned Contempt Court found that there is no merit in the contempt petition and in order to maintain an appeal under Section 19 of the 1971 Act, the party on whom a punishment has been imposed alone could have approached the Court. In the instant case, the appellant was the petitioner in the contempt petition and he sought for punishing the respondents for wilful disobedience of the order in the writ petition. The learned Contempt Court found that there is no violation, rather the portions of the order passed in the writ petitions, which were heavily relied on by the appellant, were held to be observations made by the learned Writ Court. The informant, who is the appellant before us, does not have a right of filing an appeal under Section 19 of the 1971 Act or against an order refusing to initiate contempt proceedings or disposing of the application or petition filed for initiating such proceedings and he cannot be called an aggrieved party. Therefore, the appellant could not have maintained an appeal under Section 19 of the 1971 Act. If such is the situation, can the appellant invoke Clause 15 of the Letters Patent and seek for maintaining this intra-court appeal. The answer to the question should be answered in the negative and against the appellant. To put it plainly, the appellant is seeking to indirectly achieve what he could not achieve in terms of the provisions of the 1971 Act. The facts in the decision in Ashis Chakraborty [1991 (12) TMI 289 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] which was referred to in Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank Shareholders Welfare Association [2008 (12) TMI 676 - SUPREME COURT] is couched on an entirely different factual background and would not be applicable to the case of the appellant. That apart, if the appellant's role is only that of an informant and upon information given, the Court is convinced that no proceedings for contempt is required to be initiated, then the appellant cannot be heard to say that he should be permitted to maintain an intra-court appeal against the finding of the Contempt Court especially when, his role terminates the moment the information is placed before the Court. Intra-court appeal filed by the appellant is not maintainable and consequently, the objection raised by the Registry is sustained and the writ appeal is dismissed as not maintainable in the SR stage itself.
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