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2016 (10) TMI 105

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..... to search and seizure proceedings under Section 132 of the Act on the Petitioner. This search operation has also been challenged by the Petitioner seeking an apology from the Respondents Revenue. 2 On 10 October 2000, this Petition was admitted only with regard initiation of proceedings under Chapter XIVB of the Act i.e. issue of the impugned notice while staying it. In view of the above, the challenge to search and seizure proceedings by the Petitioner and consequent apology does not survive for examination. 3 The genesis of the present proceedings was the search and seizure operation on the Concept Communication Group of Companies on 6 January 1999 belonging to one Mr. Nirmal Suchanti. During the course of the search, the search party .....

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..... ology of Mr. Nirmal Suchanti to the Petitioner. A copy of the above affidavit of Mr. Nirmal Suchanti was also submitted by the Petitioner to the Income Tax Department. 5 Despite the above, the impugned notice dated 16 May 2000 was issued under Section 158BC of the Act to the Petitioner to file his return of income for the block period covered by the search. Today, the grievance of the Petitioner as also that recorded in the order admitting this Petition, is that during course of search, nothing was found with the Petitioner, so as to infer that he was in possession of any undisclosed income either at the time of search or at any time prior thereto. Consequently, in the absence of there being undisclosed income, the Assessing Officer would .....

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..... impugned show cause notice dated 16 May 2000. Appraisal report dated 16 April 2000 inte ralia records as under : "Shri (Dr.) Gautam Sen : Search action was mounted against Dr. Gautam Sen on 16 January 1999 based on the incriminating documents pertaining to the fictitious bank account of Pioneer Publicity purported to have been operated by him at Samta Sahakari Bank on behalf of Concept Communication group and also for introducing another fictitious bank account in the name of TOI Outdoor owned by socalled 'Sudhir Jain'. Dr. Gautam Sen vehemently denied having any such bank account and also denied having introduced TOI Outdoor to the bank. He, however, claimed to know Shri Nirmal Suchanti as a family friend for the last 20 years. .....

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..... a Country governed by laws. The Officers of the Income Tax Department are obliged to proceed in accordance with the statutory provisions and not on their whim and fancy. The Officers hold power in trust and must ensure that no citizen is harassed by sending him notices, when on the basis on its own record, such notices are not sustainable. We trust that the Income Tax Department would adopt a standard operating procedure which would provide for appropriate safeguards before issuing notices under Chapter XIVB of the Act. This alone would ensure that Officers of the Revenue act in terms of the mandate provided in the Act. 11 In fact, at the very outset, after a preliminary hearing, we had asked the learned Counsel for the Respondents-Revenu .....

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