Ranjitsinh Narsinh Vaghela v. Income Tax Officer Ward

IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABADR/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 15531 of 2021 ========================================================== RANJITSINH NARSINH VAGHELA VersusINCOME TAX OFFICER WARD 3, GANDHINAGAR ========================================================== Appearance: MR. HARDIK V VORA(7123) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1MR MR BHATT SENIOR COUNSEL WITH MR KARAN SANGHANI,ADVOCATE FOR M R BHATT & CO.(5953) for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2MS MAITHILI D MEHTA(3206) for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2========================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALAandHONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE NISHA M. THAKORE Date : 15/02/2022 ORAL ORDER (PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA) 1By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution ofIndia, the writ applicant – an assessee has prayed for the followingreliefs: “a.A writ of certiorari or any other writ, order or direction in thenature of certiorari allowing stay of demand arising out of notice dated17.02.2020 for amount of Rs.6,19,27,000/-; b.A writ of certiorari or any other writ, order or direction in thenature of certiorari quashing the attachment order dated 28.02.2020attaching pension bank account no.01690100006196 with Bank ofBaroda, Bank of account no.607036049815 with Ahmedabad Dist. Co-Op. Bank and account no.202010110016502 with Bank of India and toinstruct respondents to release the bank account. c.Pending the admission, hearing and final disposal of thispetition, to instruct respondents to release the bank accounts; d.Pass any other order(s) as this Hon’ble Court may deed fit andmore appropriate in order to grant interim relief to the petitioner; e.Any other and further relief deemed just and proper be grantedin the interest of justice; f.To provide for the cost of this petition.” 2We have heard Mr. Hardik Vora, the learned counsel appearingfor the writ applicant and Mr. M. R. Bhatt, the learned Senior Counselassisted by Mr. Karan Sanghani, the learned advocate appearing for theRevenue. 3The writ applicant herein is a retired government servant. Itappears that for the assessment year 2012-13, no return of income wasfiled under Section 139(1) of the Act on the premise that the income hadnot exceeded the threshold limit which makes filing of the returnmandatory. 4The case was reopened under Section 147 of the Act by issuing anotice under Section 148 of the Act dated 28[th] March 2019 on the basisof information received from the DDIT(Investigation), Unit-1(3),Ahmedabad that the assessee has received cash amounting toRs.4,32,36,000/- during the F. Y. 2011-12. 5The Assessing Officer proceeded to pass the assessment orderdated 30[th] December 2019 under Section 144 read with Section 147 ofthe Act for the assessment year 2012-13. The operative part of theassessment order reads thus: “3.16 Subject to the above remarks, the total income of the assessee isdetermined on the basis of statement of income filed alongwith ROI dt.22/05/2019 and as discussed above, as under: Assessed under Section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax.Caculate tax accordingly and give credit for prepaid taxes. Chargesinterest u/s. 234A, 234B, 234C and 234D of the I.T. Act as the case maybe. Issued demand notice and challan. Issued penalty notice u/s. 274r.w.s. 271(1)(c) of the I.T. Act for concealment of income.” 6The aforesaid order of assessment passed by the Assessing Officerhas been challenged by the writ applicant by filing an appeal underSection 246(A) of the Act before the Commissioner of Income Tax. “3.16 Subject to the above remarks, the total income of the assessee isdetermined on the basis of statement of income filed alongwith ROI dt.22/05/2019 and as discussed above, as under: Assessed under Section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax.Caculate tax accordingly and give credit for prepaid taxes. Chargesinterest u/s. 234A, 234B, 234C and 234D of the I.T. Act as the case maybe. Issued demand notice and challan. Issued penalty notice u/s. 274r.w.s. 271(1)(c) of the I.T. Act for concealment of income.” 6The aforesaid order of assessment passed by the Assessing Officerhas been challenged by the writ applicant by filing an appeal underSection 246(A) of the Act before the Commissioner of Income Tax. 7However, it appears that the Assessing Officer proceeded to passthree orders of attachment of the bank accounts in exercise of powersunder Sub-section (3) of Section 226 of the Act. One of the bankaccounts attached by the Assessing Officer is a pension account. The writapplicant has preferred an application dated 12[th] April 2021 addressedto the Assessing Officer for releasing the pension account fromattachment. The application filed by the writ applicant is at page : 102 ofthe paper book. 8It is not in dispute that the aforesaid application is yet to belooked into by the Assessing Officer. 9What emerges as on date is that there is an appeal before the CITagainst the assessment order and there is an application filed by the writapplicant addressed to the Assessing Officer for release of the pensionaccount. 10We dispose of this writ application with a direction to thejurisdictional Assessing Officer to take up the application filed by thewrit applicant dated 12[th] April 2021 and decide the same in accordancewith law within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the writ of this order. 11We also permit the writ applicant to file an appropriateapplication before the CIT(A) for the purpose of stay of demand. It isnow well settled that the CIT(A) has an inherent power as an appellateauthority to pass an appropriate interim order pending the final disposalof the appeal including stay of recovery. If any such application is filedby the writ applicant, the CIT(A) shall take it up for hearingexpeditiously and pass an appropriate order. 12It goes without saying that ultimately, if the CIT(A) deems fit togrant any relief to the writ applicant subject to any condition pendingthe appeal, the orders of attachment of the three bank accounts wouldautomatically not remain in operation. 13With the aforesaid this writ application stands disposed of. (J. B. PARDIWALA, J) CHANDRESH (NISHA M. THAKORE,J)