Wp/7640/2023 Of Sureshkumar Lakhotia v. Assistant Commissioner Of Income Tax Circle 5 Pune

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAYCIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTIONWRIT PETITION NO.7640 OF 2023 Sureshkumar Lakhotia ….Petitioner V/s.Assistant Commissioner of Income TaxCircle 5, Pune & Ors.…Respondents ---- Mr. Rahul Sarda a/w Ms Revati S. Nansi i/b PDS Legal for Petitioner.Mr. Suresh Kumar for Respondents. ---- CORAM : K.R. SHRIRAM & FIRDOSH P. POONIWALLA, JJ DATED : 18[th] JULY 2023 P.C. : 1 Petitioner is aggrieved by a notice dated 13[th] June 2023 that was issued by respondent no.1 to respondent no.4, i.e., HDFC Bank, underSection 226(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act), calling uponrespondent no.4 to pay over the amounts mentioned in the accounts ofpetitioner to respondent no.1. This is in furtherance to an order dated 31[st] May 2023, which has also been impugned in this petition, by whichrespondent no.1 rejected petitioner’s application for stay. 2Petitioner has preferred an appeal before respondent no.2 along with stay application. Appeal and the stay application was filed on or about 19[th]October 2022 and 8[th] June 2023 respectively, which are still pending. 3Mr. Sarda has enough grounds on merits and, therefore, prays that theorder of attachment issued under Section 226(3) of the Act, dated 13[th] June 2023 and the impugned order dated 31[st] May 2023 passed by respondentno.1 be quashed and set aside and respondent no.2 be directed to hearpetitioner’s application for stay as well as the appeal expeditiously. 4Mr. Suresh Kumar on instructions states that the order be so passed. 5Therefore, we hereby quash and set aside the notice of attachmentdated 13[th] June 2023 addressed by respondent no.1 to respondent no.4 andthe impugned order dated 31[st] May 2023 passed by respondent no.1. Wedirect respondent no.2 to consider and dispose petitioner’s stay applicationas well as the appeal within a period of 16 weeks from today. Until then, nocoercive steps to be taken. 5Petition disposed. 6We clarify that we have not made any observation on the merits of the matter. (FIRDOSH P. POONIWALLA, J.) (K.R. SHRIRAM, J.)