Harish Kumar Singhania v. Assistant Commissioner Of Income Tax, Circle 32, Kolkata And Ors

ORDER SHEET WPO/867/2023IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTACONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTIONORIGINAL SIDE HARISH KUMAR SINGHANIA VSASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, CIRCLE 32, KOLKATA ANDORS BEFORE: The Hon'ble JUSTICE MD. NIZAMUDDIN Date: 27[th] April, 2023. Appearance:Mr. Saurabh Bagaria, Adv.Mr. Saumya Kejriwal, Adv.Ms. Ananya Rath, Adv.…For the PetitionerMr. Soumen Bhattacharjee, Adv.…For the Respondents The Court : Heard learned advocates appearing for the parties. By this writ petition, petitioner has challenged the impugned orderunder Section 148A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, dated 31[st] March, 2023relating to assessment year 2019-20 on the ground of violation of principleof natural justice by depriving the petitioner access to the materials andinformation upon which the assessing officer has relied and which wasmade available to the assessing officer through insights portal and the caseof the petitioner is that in spite of specifically asking for the said materialsand information, neither the same was made available to the petitioner northe assessing officer has disclosed in his impugned order under Section148A(d) of the Act why the same could not be made available to theassessee/petitioner. It is the case of the petitioner that since the materialsand information upon which the assessing officer has relied while passingthe impugned order could not be made available to the petitioner it could not give proper and effective response to the notice under Section 148A(b) ofthe Act. It is the basic principles of natural justice that any authority usingany material against a person, before passing an order adverse to theinterest to that person, he must be provided or supplied those materials andinformations. Fact remains that though at the time of passing the impugnedorder under Section 148A(d) of the Act the materials which were available tothe assessing officer through insight portal has been disclosed in the orderunder Section 148A(d) of the Act, the same should have been supplied to thepetitioner, now it should be treated as an information to the petitioner forthe purpose of giving additional response to the notice under Section148A(b) of the Act. Considering the facts and circumstances of this case and submissionsof the parties and taking into consideration the principles of natural justice,the aforesaid impugned order under Section 148A(d) of the Act and allsubsequent proceedings are set aside and the matter is remanded back tothe assessing officer to pass a fresh order after receiving additional responseto notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act which is to be filed by thepetitioner within 10 days from date and such fresh order is to be passed bythe assessing officer after giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioner orits authorised representative and after considering and discussing theadditional response to be filed by the petitioner within the time stipulatedherein and in case of default in filing the additional response within the timestipulated herein, the impugned order under Section 148A(d) wouldautomatically stand revived. With these observations and directions, this writ petition being WPO 867 of 2023 stands disposed of. (MD. NIZAMUDDIN, J.) TR/