Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2021 Supreme(Del) 727

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
MANMOHAN, NAVIN CHAWLA, JJ.
Mon Mohan Kohli – Appellant
Versus
Assistant Commissioner Of Income Tax & Anr - Respondents
W.P.(C) 6176, 6442, 6443, 6451, 6465, 6563, 6531, 6596, 6607, 6645, 6665, 6667, 6668, 6705, 6717, 6718, 6777, 6799, 6800, 6801, 6805, 6822, 6830, 6832, 6857, 6877, 6880, 6888, 6889, 6890, 6894, 6896, 6897, 6898, 6904, 6905, 6906, 6910, 6917, 6918, 6920, 6922, 6924, 6931, 6950/2021 6954, 6955, 6962, 6963, 6965, 6966, 6968, 6972, 6976, 7015, 7016, 7018, 7027, 7028, 7030, 7031, 7037, 7038, 7039, 7041, 7047, 7049, 7054, 7055, 7058, 7062, 7066, 7071, 7072, 7075, 7076, 7078, 7079, 7080, 7083, 7097, 7098, 7102, 7104, 7107, 7109, 7111, 7130, 7131, 7132, 7134, 7138, 7139, 7140, 7141, 7143, 7144, 7145, 7147, 7158, 7163, 7165, 7168, 7169, 7170, 7171, 7172, 7173, 7174, 7175, 7177, 7178, 7180, 7181, 7190, 7191, 7193, 7196, 7200, 7201, 7203, 7205, 7206, 7208, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7213, 7215, 7217, 7219, 7220, 7225, 7229, 7231, 7257, 7259, 7262, 7263, 7267, 7269, 7273, 7274, 7275, 7277, 7278, 7287, 7292, 7300, 7301, 7302, 7303, 7304, 7305, 7306, 7307, 7308, 7309, 7311, 7312, 7313, 7317, 7318, 7319, 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8176, 8178, 8180, 8182, 8184, 8185, 8188, 8190, 8191, 8192, 8193, 8196, 8197, 8198, 8200, 8201, 8212, 8215, 8216, 8217, 8218, 8219, 8220, 8221, 8222, 8223, 8224, 8225, 8227, 8260, 8261, 8262, 8263, 8264, 8265, 8266, 8268, 8269, 8270, 8271, 8272, 8273, 8275, 8276, 8277, 8278, 8279, 8281, 8283, 8284, 8285, 8286, 8287, 8288, 8298, 8299, 8300, 8302, 8303, 8304, 8305, 8306, 8307, 8309, 8310, 8312, 8313, 8314, 8315, 8316, 8317, 8318, 8319, 8320, 8321, 8322, 8323, 8354, 8355, 8356, 8357, 8359, 8361, 8362, 8363, 8364, 8365, 8368, 8369, 8370, 8372, 8373, 8374, 8376, 8378, 8380, 8383, 8384, 8386, 8387, 8388, 8389, 8390, 8416, 8431, 8436, 8438, 8441, 8443, 8444, 8446, 8448, 8450, 8462, 8463, 8464, 8465, 8466, 8467, 8468, 8469, 8475, 8476, 8478, 8480, 8492, 8499, 8501, 8502, 8503, 8505, 8506, 8511, 8512, 8513, 8514, 8517, 8518, 8519, 8523, 8525, 8526, 8527, 8530, 8531, 8533, 8534, 8535, 8536, 8537, 8538, 8539, 8541, 8542, 8543, 8544, 8545, 8546, 8550, 8574, 8575, 8583, 8584, 8585, 8586, 8589, 8590, 8591, 8593, 8594, 8595, 8596, 8600, 8604, 8607, 8608, 8616, 8619, 8622, 8627, 8629, 8631, 8633, 8634, 8636, 8637, 8638, 8639, 8641, 8642, 8644, 8646, 8647, 8648, 8660, 8661, 8662, 8667, 8668, 8671, 8688, 8690, 8693, 8694, 8695, 8698, 8699, 8700, 8701, 8702, 8705, 8706, 8707, 8717, 8721, 8722, 8723, 8725, 8727, 8728, 8734, 8739, 8741, 8747, 8752, 8754, 8755, 8756, 8757, 8758, 8760, 8761, 8763, 8764, 8766, 8774, 8776, 8786, 8788, 8789, 8795, 8806, 8810, 8811, 8813, 8816, 8818, 8819, 8822, 8823, 8824, 8825, 8827, 8828, 8829, 8831, 8836, 8838, 8846, 8847, 8849, 8850, 8851, 8852, 8854, 8855, 8856, 8857, 8858, 8859, 8860, 8863, 8864, 8872, 8874, 8877, 8880, 8881, 8889, 8890, 8891, 8899, 8913, 8920, 8921, 8925, 8930, 8936, 8939, 8943, 8944, 8945, 8949, 8956, 8958, 8961, 8965, 8970, 8975, 8980, 8981, 8985, 8987, 8988, 8999, 9001, 9006, 9016, 9024, 9025, 9026, 9028, 9030, 9032, 9034, 9035, 9036, 9037, 9039, 9040, 9041, 9045, 9047, 9050, 9052, 9059, 9060, 9061, 9064, 9066, 9067, 9068, 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9526, 9527, 9528, 9532, 9533, 9534, 9535, 9536, 9538, 9542, 9543, 9544, 9545, 9546, 9547, 9548, 9549, 9550, 9551, 9552, 9553, 9554, 9555, 9557, 9567, 9569, 9571, 9572, 9573, 9599, 9600, 9601, 9602, 9603, 9604, 9605, 9606, 9607, 9609, 9610, 9612, 9613, 9615, 9616, 9617, 9618, 9619, 9620, 9621, 9623, 9624, 9625, 9629, 9632, 9634, 9635, 9636, 9641, 9642, 9647, 9648, 9649, 9650, 9652, 9654, 9655, 9656, 9658, 9660, 9663, 9664, 9665, 9668, 9669, 9672, 9673, 9674, 9675, 9676, 9677, 9678, 9679, 9680, 9682, 9686, 9689, 9696, 9720, 9722, 9726, 9727, 9728, 9729, 9731, 9732, 9733, 9736, 9737, 9738, 9739, 9741, 9742, 9757, 9758, 9759, 9760, 9807/2021 9810, 9819, 9820, 9821, 9822, 9823, 9824, 9825, 9826, 9827, 9828, 9830, 9831, 9832, 9839, 9842, 9843, 9850, 9851, 9862, 9863, 9865, 9879, 9884, 9886, 9910, 9911, 9913, 9919, 9924, 9927, 9944, 9945, 9949, 9953, 9954, 9955, 9978, 9979, 9981, 9982, 9984, 10035, 10036, 10038, 10039, 10046, 10055, 10059, 10062, 10076, 10099, 10100, 10101, 10102, 10108, 10116, 10117, 10130, 10131, 10132, 10134, 10137, 10138, 10139, 10140, 10142, 10143, 10144, 10147, 10148, 10150, 10151, 10192, 10194, 10195, 10198, 10199, 10200, 10201, 10202, 10203, 10207, 10208, 10209, 10210, 10211, 10212, 10214, 10217, 10224, 10226, 10228, 10234, 10236, 10269, 10271, 10300, 10301, 10313, 10315, 10316, 10321, 10323, 10325, 10337, 10338, 10340, 10341, 10342, 10346, 10382, 10386, 10388, 10391, 10404, 10407, 10408, 10413, 10419, 10420, 10437, 10465, 10468, 10469, 10470, 10474, 10475, 10476, 10477, 10478, 10479, 10480, 10481, 10483, 10484, 10485, 10487, 10488, 10491, 10512, 10515, 10516, 10521, 10526, 10527, 10541, 10542, 10544, 10547, 10548, 10549, 10550, 10551, 10553, 10555, 10557, 10564, 10568, 10570, 10572, 10580, 10581, 10588, 10626, 10627, 10628, 10640, 10643, 10650, 10653, 6152, 10396, 10414, 10533, 10565, 10587, 10608, 10609, 10612, 10613, 10615, 10618, 10619, 10620, 10621, 10642, 10661, 10662, 10663, 10683, 10684, 10685, 10687, 10688, 10692, 10693, 10694, 10695, 10696, 10697, 10700, 10702, 10704, 10706, 10734, 10735, 10739, 10741, 10744, 10748, 10752, 10756, 10757, 10761, 10764, 10766, 10767, 10783, 10799, 10802, 10803, 10811, 10819, 10820, 10827, 10829, 10841, 10843 of 2021
Decided on : 15-12-2021

Advocate Appeared:
Mr. S. Ganesh, Senior Advocate with Ms. Archana Sahadeva, Mr. Percy Pardiwalla, Senior Advocate with Mr. Salil Kapoor, Ms. Ananya Kapoor, Mr. Sumit Lalchandani, Ms. Soumya Singh, Mr. Sanat Kapoor, Ms. Kavita Jha, Mr. Vaibhav Kulkarni, Mr. Udit Naresh, Mr. Anant Mann, Mr. Aditeya Bali, Mr. Rahul Unnikrishnan, Mr. Himanshu Aggarwal, Ms. Shwetha Prabhakar, Mr. Ved Jain, Ms. Richa Mishra, Mr. Rohit Jain with Mr. Neeraj Jain, Mr. Aniket D. Agrawal, Ms. Manisha Sharma, Mr. Aseem Chawla, Mr. Manu K. Giri, Mr. Ashish Dhunna & Ms. Soniya Dodeja, Mr. Piyush Kaushik, Mr. Sachit Jolly, Ms. Anuradha Dutt, Mr. Rohit Garg, Ms. Disha Jham, Ms. Mehak Sachdeva, Mr. Sohum Dua, Mr. Kapil Gupta, Mr. Puneet Agarwal, Mr. Yuvraj Singh, Mr. Prem Kandpal, Mr. Chetan Kumar Shukla, Ms. Hemlata Rawat, Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Mr. Jaspal Singh Sethi, Mr. Gaurav Gupta & Ms. Sahiba Pantel, Mr. T.M. Shivakumar, Mr. Manibhadra Jain, Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Mr. Somil Agarwal, Mr. Tani Malik, Mr. Anshul Mittal, Mr. Mayank Nagi, Mr. Arvind Kumar & Ms. Devina Sharma, Mr. Sunil K.Mukhi, Mr. Ishan Garg, Mr.T.S Nerwal, Mr. P.C. Yadav, Mr. Raghvendra Singh and Mr Satish kumar, Mr. Rahul Chaudhary, Mr. Avesh Chaudhary, Mr. Abhay Shankar Dubey, Mr. Navin Kumar with Mr. Deepak and Mr. Rohit Pal, Mr. Kamal Sawhney with Mr. Prashant Meharchandani, Mr. Nikhil Agarwal, Mr. Arun Bhaduria, Mr. Divyansh Singh, Mr. Inder Paul Bansal and Mr. Vivek Bansal, Mr. Suresh Chandra Sati, Mr.Sushil Tekriwal & Dr. Mamta Tekriwal, Mr. Piyush Singhal, Mr. Risabh Sharma, Mr. Rajiv Kumar Virmani, Mr. Abhinav Agrawal, Mr. Rishi Vohar, Ms. Swati Bhardwaj, Mr.Rishabh Ostwal, Mr. Rano Jain with Mr. Venketesh Chaurasia, Mr.Sourav Vig and Mr.Tushar Gupta, Mr. Virender Mehta, Mr. Manish Paliwal, Mr. Vikas Kumar, Mr. Vishal Aggarwal, Mr.Anish Sarna, Mr. Pankaj Gupta and Ms. Rimpy Gupta, Mr. Harshit Batra and Mr. Ritesh Bajaj, Mr. A.K. Babbar, Mr. V.K. Sabharwal, Mr. Surendra Kumar, Mr. B.K. Tripathi, Ms. Vanita Bhargava, Mr. Ajay Bhargava, Ms. Shweta Kabra, Ms. Prerna Singh, Ms. Rashmi Chopra, Mr. Kishore Kunal, Mr. Manish Rastogi, Mr. Parth and Mr. Sumit Khadaria, Mr. Amol Sinha, Mr. Anshum Jain, Mr. Ashvini Kumar, Mr. Ashvini Kumar, Mr. Rahul Kochar, Mr. Kshitiz Garg, Mr. Abhinav Arya, Ms. Shreya Jain & Mr. Gaurav Tanwar, Mr. Pulkit Deora with Mr. Arnav Vidyarthi, Sh. Pankaj Jain, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Gaurav Mittal, Ms. Divya Suri and Mr. Sachin Bhardwaj, Mr. Bhupinder Jit Kumar, Ms. Jyoti Taneja, Mr. Vidur Kamra, Mr. Neeraj Jain, Mr. Aditya Vohra, Mr. Divyanshu Agrawal, Ms. Ritika Chawla and Mr. Vaibhav Niti, Mr. Jitesh Talwani, Mr. Abhimanyu Goyal, Mr. Sahil Mahajan and Ms. Anjali, Mr Krishna kumar Agarwal, Mr. Sharad Agarwal, Ms. Monika Ghai, Ms. Poonam Ahuja, Mr. R. Madhav Bera, Mr. Divyansh Jain, Mr. Dennis T Panmei, Mr. Aakash Bhardwaj, Mr. Rishi Jaiswal, Mr. Keshav Maheshwari, Ms. Akansha Gupta and Ms. Tanya Minocha, Mr.Udai Khanna, Mr. Ritambhara Narang and Mr. Pranay Mohan Govil, Mr. Sagar Rohatgi, Mr. Manuj Sabharwal, Mr. Ankur Bansal alongwith Mr. Mukul Rawal and Mr. Devendra Dang, Mr. Mukesh Gupta and Mr. Shashi Gandhi, Mr. Prakash Kumar along with Mrs. Rashmi Singh, Mr. Ansh Singh Luthra, Mr. Harmanpreet Singh Kohli and Mr. Abhishek Samal, Mr. Nitin Gulati, Mr. Arnav Kumar, Mr. Rajat Mittal, Mr. Devrath Arora and Mr. Lakshay Virmani, Advs, Mr. Sagar Rohatgi, Mr. Anil Kumar Chunduru & Mr. Neeraj Kumar Jha, Mr. Kapil Hirani, & Mr. Shakul R. Ghatole, Mr. Sumit K Batra, Mr. Manish Khurana, Mr. Bharat Beriwal, Ms. Priyadarshini Dewan, Mr. Shankari Mishra, Priyesh Srivastava, Advs, Ms. Jaya Goyal & Ms. Manpreet Kaur, Advs, Mr. Yogesh K. Jagia, Mr. Amit Sood, Mr. Rishabh Nangia, Advs, Mr. Gautam Jain and Mr. Piyush Kumar Kamal, Advs, Mr. Nagesh Kumar Behl, Mr.Mayank Pachauri & Mr. Vishal Gourav, Advs, Mr. Simran Mehta, Adv, Shri Tejasvi Goel, Adv, Mr. K. Sampath & Mr. S. Krishnan, Advs, Mr. S. Krishnan & Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Adv, Mr. Mayank Nagi, Mr.Tarun Singh & Mr.Pulkit Verma, Advs, Mr. Ruchesh Sinha, Mr. Gautam Khaitan, Mr. AT Patra, Mr. Aditya Ghadge, Mr. Ramaditya Tiwari & Ms.Divya, Advs, Ms.Priamvada Surolia, Ms.Lakshita Arora & Mr. Abhishek Parmar, Advs, Mr. Shafiq Khan, Adv, Ms. Ranjana Roy Gawai, Mr. Ujjwal Jain & Mr. Shikher Upadhyay, Advs, Mr. P.R Rajhans, Mr. Ankur Vats & Mr. Vivek Singh, Advs, Mr. Sekhar Gupta & Mr. Mehendra Pratap, Advs, Mr. Deepanshu Jain & Mr. Shaantanu Jain, Advs, Mr. Gagan Kumar, Adv, Mr. Abhimanyu, Mr. Ankit Panwar, Mr. Parth Dixit & Mr. Abhishek Singh & Ms. Leena Kalra, AR of the Company. Mr. Hemant Shah and Saurabh Pal, Advs, Mr. R. K. Handoo, Mr.Yoginder Handoo, Mr.Ashwin Kataria, Mr.Aditya Chaudhary and Mr.Raghav Bhalla, Advs, Mr. Rahul Malhotra, Mr. Manas Tripathi and Ms. Diksha Singh Dhakre, Mr. K.R. Manjani & Mr.Tarun Aswani, Advs, Mr. Vishal Kalra, Mr. S.S. Tomar and Mr. Ankit Sahni, Advs, Mr. Rajeev Sharma, Adv, Mr. Kapil Goel and Mr.Sandeep Goel, Advocates Mr. Rohit Bansal, Adv, Mr. Amit Kaushik, Adv, Mr. Vikas Arora, Ms. Radhika Arora and Mr. Mohit Dagar, Advocates Mr. Satyen Sethi & Mr. Arta Trana Panda, Advs, Mr. Rupesh Kumar with Ms. Neelam Sharma, Mr. Pankhuri Shrivastava, Mr. Pravesh Bahuguna, Mr. Alekshendra Sharma, Advs, Mr. Sougat Sinha & Mr. Manoj Kumar, Advs, Mr. Hemant Singh, Mridul Chakravarty, Mr. Tushar Srivastava, Ms. Shruti Gupta, Lavanya Panwar, Advs, Dr. Shashwat Bajpai with Mr Vishal Aggarwal, Advs, Mr. Rakesh Jain, Adv, Mr. Pragyan Pradip Sharma and Ms. Gurnoor Kaur, Advs, Ms. Surbhi Chandra, Adv, Mr. Kanishk Agarwal with Mr. Mayank Patni, Ms. Nidhi Bhuwania Advs, Mr. Rajiv K. Garg and Mr. Ashish Garg, Advs, Mr. R. K. Handoo, Mr. Garvit Solanki, Advs, Mr. Deepak Chopra with Mr. Harpreet Singh Ajmani, Mr. Rashi Khanna, Ms. Priya Tandon and Mr. Manasvine Bajpai, Advs, Mr. Shekhar Gupta, Adv, Mr. Mani Bhadra Jain, Adv, Mr. Vishnu Langwat with Ms. Nidhi Tomar & Mr. Vinay Pal, Advs,Mr. Vaibhav Sharma, Adv, Ms. Bandana Grover, Adv, Mr. Sumit Singh, Adv, Mr. Debesh Panda & Ms. Anandita Sharma, Advs, Mrs. Harvinder Oberoi, Adv, Mr. Purav Middha, Adv, Mr. Akarsh Garg, Mr. Parth Davar, Mr. Sushant Singhal & Mr. Himanshu Aggarwal, Advs, Mr. Sabhay Choudhary, Adv, Mr. Harpreet Singh & Mr. Gagan Kumar Singhal, Advs, Mr. Gaurav Jain & Mr.Gautam Jain, Advs, Mr. Anirudh Bakhru, Mr. Ayush Puri, Mr. Umang Tyagi & Mr. Tejaswini Chandrasekhar, Adv, Mr Zoheb Hossain, Sr. Standing Counsel with Mr. Vipul Agarwal, Jr. Standing Counsel, Mr. Parth Semwal, Mr. Sunil Agarwal, Sr. Standing Counsel, Tushar Gupta, Jr. Standing and Mr. Samarth Chaudhari, Mr. Puneet Rai, Adeeba Mujahid, Jr. Standing Counsel, Mr. Ruchir Bhatia, Mr. Abhishek Maratha, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Sr. Standing Counsel with Ms. Easha Kadiyan, Ms. Vibhooti Malhotra, Sr. Standing counsel Mr Shailender Singh, Jr St counsel and Mr.Udit Sharma, Adv, Mr. Harpreet Singh, Sr SC with Mr. Arunesh Sharma & Ms.Suhani Mathur, Advs, Mr. Kunal Sharma, Sr. Standing Counsel with Ms. Zehra Khan, Jr. Standing Counsel and Mr. Shubhendu Bhattacharya, Adv, Mr. Ajit Sharma, Sr. Standing Counsel with Mr. Anant Ram Mishra, Adv, Mr. Sanjeev Sabharwal, Mr. Avnish Singh with Ms. Pushplata Singh, Mr. P.C Yadav, Mr. Vivek Goyal, Mr. Nawal Kishore Jha, Mr. Dilbag Singh, Mr. Kamal Kant Jha, Mr. Ranvir Singh, Mr. D.S.Mehandru, Mr. Anil Dabas, Mr. Praveen Kumar Jain, Adv, Ms. Richa Dhawan, Ms. Aakanksha Kaul, Mr. Manek Singh, Mr. Aman Sahani, Advs, Mr. Nitin Khanna, Ms. Arti Bansal, Mr. Prakash Kumar, Mr. Narendra Kumar Srivastava, Mr. Praveen Kumar Jain, Ms. Talish Ray, Ms. Sunieta Ojha, Mr. Neeraj, Mr. Sahaj Garg , Mr. Vedansh Anand, Mr. Rudra Paliwal and Mr. Sanjay Pal, Mr.Ajay Digpaul with Kamal R. Digpaul, Mr. Ravi Prakash CGSC with Mr. Gurtejpal Singh, Ms. Shruti Shivkumar, Mr. Ashwani Kumar Sharma, Mr.Sushil Kumar Pandey, Adv, with Mr. Rahul Mourya, Ms. Sweety Singh Chauhan & Ms. Anjum Kaur, Mr. Jitesh Vikram Srivastava, Mr. Prajesh Vikram Srivastava, Ms. Aakanksha Kaul, Mr. Manek Singh, Mr. Aman Sahani, Advs, Mr. Ajay Digpaul, Adv, Mr. Vivekanand Mishra, Mr. Ruchir Mishra and Mr. Mukesh Kumar Tiwari, Advs, Mr. Shankar Kumar Jha, Adv, Mr. Manoj Kumar Tyagi, Adv, Mr. Chiranjiv Kumar, Adv, Mr. Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Adv, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Sharma, Adv, Mr. Siddharth Khatana, Adv, Ms. Leena Tuteja, Adv, Mr. T. P.Singh, Adv, Mr. Bhagvan Swarup Shukla (CGSC) with Mr. Sarvan Kumar, Advs, Mr. Dev P Bhardwaj, CGSC with Ms. Anubha Bhardwaj, Adv, Mr. Satyendra Kumar, Adv, Mr. Satya Ranjan Swain, Senior Panel Counsel, Mr. Kautilya Birat, Adv, Mr. Farman Ali, Senior Panel Counsel and Mr.Athar Raza Farooquei, Adv, Mr. Sushil Kumar Pandey, Mr. Aman Malik, Mr. Jivesh Tiwari, Mr. Manisha Agrawal Narain, Mr. Rakshita Goyal, Mr. Aditya Deshwal, Ms. Suman Chauhan, Mr. Rishabh Sahu, Mr. Gigi C George, Mr Ayush Agrawal, Senior Panel Counsel (UOI), Mr. Vikrant Singh Bloria, Mr. Sushant Tomar, Mr. Naginder Benipal, SPC with Mr. Naveen Chawla and Mr. Harithi Kambiri, Mr. B.N.P. Pathak, Mr. Vikrant N Goyal, Mr. Jaswant Rai Aggarwal, Adv, Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, Adv,with Mr. Kartikey Singh, Adv, Mr. Ghanshyam Mishra & Ms. Vinita Sharma, Advs, Mr. Satyanand, Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv, Mr. Harish Kumar Garg, Mr. Rajesh Gogna, CGSC with Mr. Vaibhav Anand, Mr. Chiranjiv Kumar, Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Mr. Akhilesh Kumar, Ms. Nidhi Banga, Senior Panel Counsel for UOI with Ms. Kirti Arora, Ms. Anju Gupta, Adv, Mr. Shashank Bajpai, SPC, Mrs. Shakun Sudha Shukla, Mr. Dhananjay Tiwari, Advs, Mr. Niraj Kumar, Mr. S.S. Rai, SPC for UOIfor R-3 & R-4 alongwith Mrs. Roopam Rai, Adv, Mr. Alok Singh, SPC for UOI along with Ms. Sonam Awasthi, Mr. Gaurav Bhardwaj, Advs, Mr. Prasanta Varma, Sr. PC, Government Counsel with Mrs. Prativa Varma, Mr. Amrit Singh Khalsa, Ms. Hiteshi Kakkar, Mr. G. D. Sharma, Mr. Asheesh Jain, CGSC with Mr. Adarsh Kr. Gupta, Mr. Saroj Bidawat, Ms. Archana Gaur, Mr. Ayush Agrawal, Senior Panel Counsel (UOI), Vikrant Singh Bloria, Mr. P. S. Singh, Mr. Ashish Verma and Mr. Debopriyo Moulik, Ms. Sonu Bhatnagar, Sr. SC with Ms. Venus Mehrotra, Ms. Kanak Grover, Mr. Rajesh Gogna, CGSC with Mr. Arihant Jain, Mr. Kirtiman Singh CGSC with Mr. Taha Yasin, Adv, Ms. Sarika Singh, Adv, Mr. Rahul Sharma, Central Government Counsel Panel and Mr. C.K.Bhatt, Adv, Mr.Virender Pratap Singh Charak with Ms.Shubhra Parashar, Mr. Pushpender Singh Charak, Mr. Kapil Gaur, Mr. Vaishnav Kirti Singh, Mr. Shubham Ahuja, Mr. Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Mr. Ram Pal Singh Tomar, Mr. Gyanwardhan Singh & Mr. Vivek Nagar, Advs, for UOI. Mr.Nirvikar Verma, Mr.Rajesh Kumar, Mr. Manish Mohan, CGSC with Ms. Manisha Saroha, Adv, Mr. Shyam Sundar Rai, Adv.

Point of Law: Executive/Respondents/Revenue cannot use the administrative power to issue Notifications under Section 3(1) of the Relaxation Act, 2020 to undermine the expression of Parliamentary supremacy in the form of an Act of Parliament, namely, the Finance Act, 2021.

Headnote:
Income Tax Act, 1961-Section 148 - Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 – Assessment - 'Income escaping assessment-Reassessment proceedings prior to coming into force of the Finance Act, 2021- Whether the Government/Executive can make or change law of the land by way of Explanations to Notifications without specific Authority from the Legislature to do so and whether the Government/Executive can impede the implementation of law made by the Legislature- quashing of the re-assessment Notices
Finding of the Court:
Finance Act, 2021 introduces a new regime regarding the procedure to be complied with in respect of the re-opening of an Income-tax assessment and accordingly, the benefit of the new provisions must necessarily be made available even in respect of proceedings relating to past Assessment Years provided, of course, Section 148 notice has been issued on or after 1st April, 2021 - vested right in favour of the Revenue stood exhausted/expired long ago and no vested right of the respondents has been infringed leave alone violated.- new provisions are remedial and benevolent provisions which are meant and intended to protect the rights and interests of assessees as well as promote public interest- unamended Sections 147 to 149 and 151 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 prescribed the procedure governing initiation of reassessment proceedings. However, the same gave rise to numerous litigations, particularly on the issues that reassessment proceedings were often initiated
Result: Writ petitions are allowed

JUDGMENT :

MANMOHAN, J:

1. Various issues arise for consideration in the present batch of one thousand three hundred and forty six (1346) writ petitions, yet in essence, the questions of law that arise for consideration are whether the Government/Executive can make or change law of the land by way of Explanations to Notifications without specific Authority from the Legislature to do so and whether the Government/Executive can impede the implementation of law made by the Legislature.

2. It is pertinent to mention that in the present batch of matters, the petitioners-assessees have sought quashing of the re-assessment Notices issued post 31st March, 2021 by the Respondents-Revenue under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The petitioners-assessees also seek a declaration declaring Explanations A(a)(ii)/A(b) to the Notification No.20 [S.O.1432(E)] dated 31st March, 2021 and Notification No.38 [S.O.1703(E)] dated 27th April, 2021 to the extent that the same extend the applicability of the “provisions of Section 148, Section 149 and Section 151 of the Act, as the case may be, as they stood as on the 31st day of March, 2021, before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2021” to the period beyond 31st March, 2021 as ultra vires the parent legislation, viz., The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Relaxation Act, 2020’).

ADMITTED FACTS

3. The procedure governing initiation of reassessment proceedings prior to coming into force of the Finance Act, 2021 was governed by the following provisions:-

“Income escaping assessment.

147. If the Assessing Officer has reason to believe that any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for any assessment year, he may, subject to the provisions of sections 148 to 153, assess or reassess such income and also any other income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment and which comes to his notice subsequently in the course of the proceedings under this section, or recomputed the loss or the depreciation allowance or any other allowance, as the case may be, for the assessment year concerned (hereafter in this section and in sections 148 to 153 referred to as the relevant assessment year):

Provided that where an assessment under sub-section (3) of section 143 or this section has been made for the relevant assessment year, no action shall be taken under this section after the expiry of four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, unless any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for such assessment year by reason of the failure on the part of the assessee to make a return under section 139 or in response to a notice issued under sub-section (1) of section 142 or section 148 or to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment, for that assessment year:

Provided further that nothing contained in the first proviso shall apply in a case where any income in relation to any asset (including financial interest in any entity) located outside India, chargeable to tax, has escaped assessment for any assessment year:

Provided also that the Assessing Officer may assess or reassess such income, other than the income involving matters which are the subject matters of any appeal, reference or revision, which is chargeable to tax and has escaped assessment.

Explanation 1.-Production before the Assessing Officer of account books or other evidence from which material evidence could with due diligence have been discovered by the Assessing Officer will not necessarily amount to disclosure within the meaning of the foregoing proviso.

Explanation 2.-For the purposes of this section, the following shall also be deemed to be cases where income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment, namely :-

(a) where no return of income has been furnished by the assessee although his total income or the total in

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2021 Supreme(Del) 727

Point of Law: Executive/Respondents/Revenue cannot use the administrative power to issue Notifications under Section 3(1) of the Relaxation Act, 2020 to undermine the expression of Parliamentary supremacy in the form of an Act of Parliament, namely, the Finance Act, 2021.

Cases Referred (52)

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