Jagdish v. The Commissioner Of Income Tax(Appeals)-Raj-Iii, Jaipur &Others

1S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4407/2015& OTHER CONNECTED MATTERS IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCHAT JAIPUR.ORDER (1) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4407/2015 WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3954/2015 JAGDISH VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. WITH(2) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4409/2015 WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3956/2015 JAGDISH VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. WITH (3) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4410/2015WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3957/2015 JAGDISH VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. WITH (4) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4312/2015 WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3868/2015 SMT. NARANGI DEVI VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR & OTHERS. WITH (5) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4313/2015 WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3869/2015 SMT. NARANGI DEVI VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4407/2015& OTHER CONNECTED MATTERS WITH (6) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4318/2015WITHS.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3873/2015 SMT. JAMNA DEVI VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. WITH (7) S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4319/2015WITH S.B. CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLICATION NO. 3874/2015 SMT. JAMNA DEVI VS. THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX(APPEALS)-RAJ-III, JAIPUR &OTHERS. DATE OF ORDER : 30.04.2015 HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MOHAMMAD RAFIQ Mr. P.K. Kasliwal, for the petitioners. Mr. Sameer Jain with Ms. Mahi Yadav, for the respondents. BY THE COURT: Since all these writ petitions raise similar questions of facts and law, they were heard together and are being decided by thiscommon order. For the sake of convenience, facts of S.B. Civil WritPetition No. 4407/2015 are taken as the basis. Petitioner-assessee, Jagdish is an individual residing atGram Goner, Tehsil, Sanganer Jaipur and having agriculture income.He filed his income tax return on 23.01.2014 in response to noticeunder Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961(for short 'the Act')issued by the respondents, declaring an agriculture income of Rs.1,30,000/- for the assessment year 2008-09. The petitioner also filed objections to the aforesaid notice. The Assessing Officerdisposed of the objections vide order dated 13.02.2014 and assessedthe income of the petitioner-assessee at Rs. 18,15,460/- andagricultural income at Rs. 1,30,000/- vide order dated 24.02.2014.The petitioner being aggrieved by the aforesaid order, preferred anappeal before the Commissioner(Appeals)-III, Jaipur on 11.04.2014.Thereafter, the petitioner received demand notice dated 18.11.2014for recovery of aforesaid demand. The petitioner in response to thesaid notice filed stay application for staying the demand. Thepetitioner received further notice dated 26.12.2014 for disposal ofstay application and the same was duly complied with, but stayapplication has not been decided and is still pending. Thereafter, thepetitioner received another notice dated 13.02.2015 issued by TaxRecovery Officer-III, Jaipur for payment of the demand. Thepetitioner in response to the same, filed stay application before theCommissioner of Income Tax(Appeals)-III, Jaipur on 02.02.2015 andthe same is still pending. The petitioner received a notice dated16.02.2015 with threat of arrest and attachment without consideringthe fact that stay application filed by the petitioner is still pending.Hence, the petitioner, apprehending action for enforcement of thedemand by the respondents, has approached this Court by way ofinstant writ petition. In other writ petitions filed by petitioners-assessees, Smt.Narangi Devi and Smt. Jamna Devi, similar types of notices havebeen issued for recovery of demands created in their respective casesand the appeals and stay applications filed by them before theCommissioner of Income Tax(Appeals)-Raj-III, Jaipur. Therefore,they have also filed presents writ petitions. 4S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4407/2015 & OTHER CONNECTED MATTERS Learned counsel for the petitioners has contended thatlimited prayer of the petitioners is that the respondents may not takeany coercive action against the petitioners till the appeals filed by thepetitioners against the assessment orders are pending, particularlywhen stay applications filed along with the appeals are not beingtaken up for hearing by the appellate authority. In support of hisarguments learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon decisionrendered by this Court in Maharana Shri Bhagwat Singh Vs. ITAT, 223ITR Page 192. It is, therefore, prayed that the Commissioner(Appeals)-III, Jaipur may be directed to decide the stay applicationsor the appeals filed by the petitioners at the earliest. Learned counsel for the respondents has opposed the writpetitions and submitted that the petitioners have not approached thisCourt with clean hands and they have concealed the fact that theirstay applications have already been dismissed by the concernedAssessing Authority. However, he has not opposed the submission oflearned counsel for the petitioners with regard to decisions of stayapplications, if not already decided filed with the appeals, by theappellate authority. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perusedthe material on record, this Court is of the view that ends of justicewould meet if the Commissioner of Income Tax(Appeals)-Raj-III,Jaipur is directed to decide the stay applications or the appeals filedby the petitioners at the earliest. In view of above, these writ petitions are disposed of withdirection to the Commissioner of Income Tax(Appeals)-Raj-III, Jaipurto at least decide the main appeals itself at the earliest and if that is S.B. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 4407/2015& OTHER CONNECTED MATTERS not possible, immediately decide stay applications filed by thepetitioners in their appeals within a period of fortnight from the dateof production of copy of this order before it. The appeals filed by thepetitioners should in any case be decided within a period of twomonths from the date copy of this order is produced before it.However, till decision of stay applications by the Commissioner ofIncome Tax(Appeals)-Raj-III, Jaipur, interim orders passed by thisCourt in all these writ petitions shall remain operative. Stay applications also stand disposed of. Office is directed to place a copy of this order on record ofeach connected writ petitions. (MOHAMMAD RAFIQ),J. Manoj, S.NO.90-92 & C1 -4. “All corrections made in the judgment/order have been incorporated in thejudgment/order being emailed.” MANOJ NARWANI Personal Assistant.