Sri Narayan Mercantiles Pvt Ltd v. Income Tax Officer Ward 2/1 Kolkata And Ors

ORDER SHEETWPO/1046/2023IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTACONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTIONORIGINAL SIDE SRI NARAYAN MERCANTILES PVT LTDVS INCOME TAX OFFICER WARD 2/1 KOLKATA AND ORS. BEFORE: Date: 15[th] May, 2023. The Hon'ble JUSTICE MD. NIZAMUDDIN Appearance:Ms. Swapna Das, Adv.…For the Petitioner. Mr. Vipul Kundalia, Adv.Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv.…For the Respondents The Court: Heard learned counsel appearing for the parties. By this writ petition the petitioner has challenged the impugned orderdated 29[th] July, 2022 relating to assessment year 2015-16 under Section148A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. I have perused the aforesaid impugned order from which it appearsthat the case relates to a scam in which the assessee was involved and thesaid scam which was conducted in F & O (Future & Option) derivativesegment on the share market platform by a syndicate of share broker andentry operators who were providing accommodation entries of profit/loss asper requirement to various beneficiaries entities in lieu of cash commission.It has also been recorded in this case as appears in the impugned orderunder Section 148A(d) of the Act that in this case transactions have beenmade through share Broker one M/s. Basan Equity Broking Limited Pvt.Ltd. which is a dubious broker and the assessee is beneficiary of bookingfictitious loss incurred through two separate equity/currency derivative trading by the method of reversal trading illiquid stock options duringthe financial year 2014-15 amounting to Rs. 2,47,50,600/- in total. It alsoappears from record as has been recorded on the basis of information inpossession of the department that there were frequent cash deposits incurrent account of Axis Bank of a proprietorship concern Shiv Shakti (prop:Raja Roy) and there were also huge amount of to and fro cash movement in14 other bank accounts of the said concern and subsequently transferred tobank accounts of various other entities without any business relevance. Inaddition it appeared in this case, on investigation that petitioner is abeneficiary, there is reference to several other mere paper companies havingno real business activity with whom petitioner has claimed transactions. Onmaterials available before the department, it is of the view that there isescapement of Rs.2,58,80,475/- in the hands of the petitioner during therelevant assessment year 2015-16. Considering the aforesaid serious financial scam unearthed oninvestigation with supporting material evidence, I am not inclined toentertain this writ petition by exercising constitutional writ jurisdiction ofthis Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and dismiss thiswrit petition being W.P.O. No. 1046 of 2023 by directing the Principle ChiefCommissioner of Income Tax, West Bengal & Sikkim to refer this case toEnforcement Directorate (ED) for investigation. Accordingly, this writ petition, WPO/1046/2023 is dismissed. A/s. (MD. NIZAMUDDIN, J.)