Wtax/746/2022 Of Anuradha Wadhwa v. The Pr Commissioner Of Income Tax And 2 Others

Court No. - 3Case :- WRIT TAX No. - 746 of 2022Petitioner :- Anuradha WadhwaRespondent :- The Pr Commissioner Of Income Tax And 2 OthersCounsel for Petitioner :- Rajan Upadhyay,Utkarsh MalviyaCounsel for Respondent :- Gaurav Mahajan Hon'ble Surya Prakash Kesarwani,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J. Heard Sri Utkarsh Malviya, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri AshishAgarwal, learned counsel for the respondent Income Tax Department. This writ petition has been filed praying for the following relief : (a) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the orderdated 13.01.2021 passed by the Respondent No.1 u/s 263 of the Income Tax Act,1961 cancelling the assessment order dated 25.07.2018 passed u/s 143 (3) beingerroneous in so far as it is prejudicial to the interest of the revenue without givingreasonable opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, as mandated in Section 263 ofthe Act. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the impugned order dated13.01.2021, under Section 263 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was passed by thePrincipal Commissioner of Income Tax, Ghaziabad, without affording anopportunity of being heard to the petitioner. The impugned order under Section 263 of the Act, 1961 was passed about 16months ago. The writ petition has been presented on 09.05.2022 to challenge theaforesaid order. Perusal of the aforesaid impugned order shows that a showcause notice was issued to the petitioner on 02.11.2020 fixing the date ofcompliance on 09.11.2020. The petitioner sought adjournment and thereafterfiled her written reply on 22.12.2020. Thus, it can not be said that the impugnedorder has been passed without affording an opportunity of hearing to thepetitioner. That apart, after the impugned order under Section 263 of the Act, 1961 waspassed the Assessing Authority issued notices to the petitioner and petitionerparticipated in proceedings and thereafter an assessment order under Section143(3) readwith Section 263 and Section 144 B of the Act, 1961 for theAssessment Year 2016-17 was passed on 29.03.2022. This Assessment order isalso not under challenge in the present writ petition. Apart from above, the orderunder Section 263 is appealable under Section 253(1)(c) of the Act, 1961. TheAssessment Order dated 29.03.2022 is appealable under Section 246 A of theAct 1961. For the reasons aforestated, we do not find any good reason to entertain this writpetition. Consequently, the writ petition is dismissed leaving it open for thepetitioner to avail statutory remedy of appeal, if so advised.