The court upheld the principle of consistency by maintaining existing stay orders against final assessments pending a writ petition, emphasizing compliance in tax deposits.

JUDGMENT

Manmohan, J. (Oral)--The hearing has been done by way of video conferencing.

CM APPL. 32749/2021

2. Exemption allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

Accordingly, application stands disposed of.

CM APPL. 32748/2021

3. Present application has been filed seeking stay of passing of final/draft assessment order pursuant to the AAR Ruling No. 1573/2014 dated 06th June, 2018 for Assessment Years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 during the pendency of the present writ petition.

4. Mr. Salve, learned senior counsel for the petitioner-applicant states that though this Court by way of interim orders dated 12th October, 2018 and 05th October, 2019 had stayed the passing of the final assessment orders pursuant to AAR Ruling till the pendency of the writ petition, yet the Assessing Officer is insisting on passing of final orders for the Assessment Years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 forthwith and not later than 30th September, 2021. The relevant portion of the orders dated 12th October, 2018 and 05th October, 2019 are reproduced hereinbelow:-

A. Order Dated 12th October, 2018.

5. Issue notice. Mr. Vivek Goyal, learned counsel accepts notice on behalf of respondent no.1. Mr. Sinha, learned counsel accepts notice on behalf of respondent nos. 2 & 3.

6. Mr. Sinha, learned counsel for respondent nos. 2& 3 points out that the order dated 12th October, 2018 and 05th October, 2019 had been passed in petitioner's CM Appl. No. 42636/2018 wherein a stay of assessment proceedings for Assessment Years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 had been sought.

7. However, this Court is of the view that till the present proceedings are disposed of it would not be appropriate to pass assessment orders pursuant to the impugned AAR Ruling dated 06th June, 2018 especially when the tax is being fully deposited by the petitioner.

8. Following the principle of consistency, this Court clarifies that the stay order dated 12th October, 2018 as made absolute on 5th August, 2019 applies to all assessments of the petitioner-applicant which will be consequent to the AAR Ruling No.1573/2014 dated 6th June, 2018 till the disposal of the present writ petition. It is clarified that by virtue of the present interim order, the respondents shall be entitled to the benefit of Explanation 1(ii) of Section 153 of the Income Tax Act.

9. With the aforesaid observations, the present application stands disposed of.

10. The order be uploaded on the website forthwith. Copy of the order be also forwarded to the learned counsel through e-mail.