B.P. Jeevan Reddy, CJ.

1. Messrs. Mahesh Chand Vishan Swarup, Muzaffarnagar, a partnership firm is questioning the validity of an order dated December 27, 1989, passed by the Commissioner of Income-tax, Meerut, transferring their assessment cases from the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Special Circle I, Muzaffarnagar, to the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Special Circle, Meerut, "to ensure proper and coordinated investigation and for other reasons" mentioned in the said order.

2. Section 127 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, empowers the Commissioner of Income-tax to transfer any case from one officer subordinate to him to another officer subordinate to him for reasons recorded by him and also after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee concerned. In this case, a notice was given to the petitioner and 29 other assessees, calling upon them to show cause why their cases should not be transferred from Muzaffarnagar to Meerut "with a view to ensure proper and coordinated investigation." The petitioner and the others filed a common reply, after considering which the impugned order was passed.

The impugned order recites the following facts : When the officials of the Department visited the residential and business premises of the said assessees to conduct a search under Section 132(1) of the Act, they were manhandled, causing severe physical injuries to them. The officers were stripped naked and search warrants and other Government documents were snatched away from them and there was also an attempt to murder some of them. On account of these incidents, the officers and the staff at Muzaffarnagar are under constant threat and pressure, mental or otherwise, and are not in a position to discharge their duties properly. It is, therefore, in the public interest to transfer the cases of the said assessees to the nearest station, namely, Meerut. The impugned order further recites that the aforesaid incidents were not denied in the common reply given by the petitioner and other assessees, but it was averred that they had all along been very co-operative with the Department and that the Department was acting vindictively towards them. They are said to have relied upon a decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Sagarmal Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd. v. CBDT [1972] 83 ITR 130, in support of their contention that mere facility of investigation was not a sufficient ground for ordering a transfer under Section 127(1). The order further recites that all the said contentions were false, which is apparent from the fact that the said assessees manhandled the officials of the Department while they were discharging their official duties.

3. Sri Rajesh Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, submitted that none of the partners of the petitioner firm were responsible for the incidents in question and that merely because some incident had taken place at Muzaffarnagar, it is not open to the Department to transfer the cases of all the assessees at Muzaffarnagar to another station. We find this argument too simplistic to merit any consideration. The writ petition is filed by the partnership' firm, Messrs. Mahesh Chand Vishan Swarup. The affidavit in support of the writ petition is sworn to by SRI "Ajai Swarup . . . son of SRI Vishan Swarup, resident of 196, Civil Lines, Muzaffarnagar". The impugned order shows that 30 persons, whose cases have been transferred thereunder, constitute one group. SRI Ajai Swarup is mentioned at item No. 12. Many of the persons, it is evident from a reading of the impugned order belong to Swarup family and all of them are residents of 196-N, Civil Lines, Muzaffarnagar. Business premises of some of the said firms (mentioned at serial Nos. 2 and 3 in the impugned orders) is also shown as 196-N, Civil Lines, Muzaffarnagar. It is wrong to say that cases of all the assessees of Muzaffarnagar are transferred to Meerut. It is evident that only the cases of a group of persons who are