9911796707
TMI Blog2004 (3) TMI 16X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act as also other relevant provisions, and had been depositing the same under section 200 of the Act and also filed annual return in Form No. 24 under section 206 of the Act for the financial year 1992-93. Petitioner No. 1 by a letter dated May 31, 1993 addressed to respondent No. 1, the prescribed income-tax authority duly filed the annual return under section 206 of the Act in Form No. 24 and the same was also received by respondent No. 1. (c) By the letter dated September 9, 1996, the said respondent No. 1 required petitioner No. 1 to furnish various information and further asked the petitioners to produce relevant books of account and documents in respect of such information which related to the tax deducted by petitioner No. 1 under section 192 of the Act. By the said letter, respondent No. 1 alleged that there were discrepancies between the figures shown in the annual return in Form No. 24 for the financial year 1992-93 and those shown in the annual reports of petitioner No. 1 for the said year. By the said letter respondent No. 1 fixed September 18, 1996, for hearing. By this writ application, the writ petitioners have challenged the jurisdiction of respondent No. 1 to ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... remedy should be considered by the court at the time of entertaining a writ application, but if a direction has already been given for filing affidavit, at the time of final hearing, such plea cannot be raised. This writ application was entertained in the year 1996. Therefore, at this stage, long after eight years, this court should not reject the application on the ground of existence of efficacious alternative remedy when the respondent has already come out with an affidavit on the question involved in this application. I, therefore, overrule the preliminary objection raised by Mr. Mullick and propose to enter into the merit of the only point advanced by Dr. Pal, appearing on behalf of the petitioner questioning the authority of respondent No. 1 to issue the impugned requisition. Dr. Pal, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, draws the attention of this court to the fact that respondent No. 1, the author of the impugned notice, not being the Assessing Officer of petitioner No. 1, could not ask the petitioners to produce those materials before him in support of the claim of petitioner No. 1. By referring to the definition of the Assessing Officer appearing in se ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and after going through the two notifications, viz., (1) dated September 15,1999, and (2) May 1,1989, I find that though in the notification of 1999 the concerned officer was given additional power under section 131, such power is absent in the notification dated May 1, 1989. At this stage, it will be profitable to refer to the provisions contained in section 131 of the Act: "The Assessing Officer, Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner (Appeals) and Chief Commissioner or Commissioner shall, for the purposes of this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), when trying a suit in respect of the following matters, namely:- (a) discovery and inspection; (b) enforcing the attendance of any person, including any officer of a banking company and examining him on oath; (c) compelling the production of books of account and other documents; and (d) issuing commissions. (1A) If the Director General or Director or Deputy Director or Assistant Director, or the authorised officer referred to in sub-section (1) of section 132 before he takes action under clauses (i) to (v) of that sub-section, has rea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... diction and administrative control of the Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal-VII, Calcutta. I also create six new wards under the administrative control and jurisdiction of Range-21, as detailed in column (2) of the Schedule annexed hereto. A Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax will be posted at Range-21 and he will be known as the Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax, Range-21, Calcutta. An ITO posted at a Ward under Range 21 will be known as ITO, TDS. The jurisdiction assigned to each Ward is mentioned in column (3). 2. This notification will come into effect from May 8, 1989 and is issued with the concurrence of the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (Technical), Calcutta. Schedule Calcutta. New Range under CIT, WB-VII.Calcutta New Ward created under Range-21 Jurisdiction (1) (2) (3) DC, Range-21. ITO (TDS), Calcutta All matters relating to Ward-21(1), all the sections in Chapter XVIIB except section 195 and also relating to section 221 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for the assessee deemed to be in default in respect of the tax under sub-section (1) of section 201 of the said Act, in respect of all the assessees who are or would came under the jurisdiction of CIT, W ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ication, those powers inhere in an Assessing Officer. To obviate ambiguity, by way of clarification, existence of power under section 131 was specifically mentioned in the subsequent notification. I, however, find substance in the contention of Dr. Pal that the two decisions cited by Mr. Mullick, one in the case of Reckitt Colman of India Ltd. v. Asst. CIT [2001] 252 ITR 550 (Cal) and the other in the case of Peerless General Finance & Investment Co. Ltd. v. Assessing Officer [2001] 248 ITR 113 (All) cannot be relied upon as precedent. In the case of Reckitt Colman [2001] 252 ITR 550 a Division Bench of this court was considering an appeal preferred against dismissal of a writ application involving a similar point in a situation after the issue of the aforesaid notification dated September 15,1999. Thus, in the notification dated September 15, 1999, power under section 131 having been specifically noted, the Division Bench had no occasion to deal with the question whether an officer who was vested with the authorities referred to in section 221 without conferring the power under section 131 could exercise such power. Therefore, the observation of the Division Bench in the said dec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
