ORDER :

ALOK MATHUR, J.

1. The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (Central), Lucknow has approached this Court by means of the present Writ Petition assailing the orders of the Income Tax Settlement Commission (hereinafter referred to as Commission) dated 19/22.08.2016 and 17.02.2017.

2. The brief facts of the case are that a search and seizure was conducted on 31.07.2013 on different premises of 5 persons, namely, (1) Dr A. K. Sachan, (2) Ms. Richa Mishra, (3) Shekhar Hospital (P) Ltd, (4) Shri Balaji Charitable Trust and (5) M/s Hind Charitable Trust. During the search cash of from the residential premises and from the office rooms of the Dr A.K.Sachan and Ms Richa Mishra. At the time of the search one of the assessee Ms. Richa Mishra surrendered Rs.8.00 crores as undisclosed income as under: -

3. Out of the 5 entities which were subject to search on 31/07/2013, three of them made separate applications on 27.02.2015 before the Settlement Commission under Section 245 of the Income Tax Act, disclosing their unaccounted income as under:-

4. The Settlement Commission on receipt of the application, decided to proceed further with the application, and sent a copy to the concerned Principal Commissioner of Income Tax seeking his response as per Rule 9 of the Income Tax Settlement (Procedure) Rules, 1997 and finally settled the matter rejecting the objections raised by Income Tax Department vide impugned order dated 19/22.8.2016.

5. Present Writ Petition was filed challenging the order of the Settlement Commission. During pendency of the present petition the Settlement Commission further proceeded at the behest of only two of the applicants to rectify the order in exercise of the powers under Section 245D(6B) of the Income Tax Act, 1961(hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 1961’) and gave further benefit to the applicants by order dated 17.02.2017 which has also been assailed in the present petition, after amendment to the writ was carried out.

THE PARTIES BEFORE THE SETTLEMENT COMMISSION :

6. Applications before the Settlement Commission were filed by following entities/persons, the description of which are as follows:-

A:- Ms. Richa Mishra:- The applicant has described herself in the application as the Director controlling the administration of M/s Shekhar Hospital (Pvt. Ltd.) which is running a hospital and rendering nursing and health services. Further, she is also controlling and managing the affairs of M/s Shri Balaji Charitable Trust as a trustee, which is running a nursing college and rendering health services. She has further submitted that apart from managing these two institutions she is also running other institutions, wife of Dr. A.K. Sachan, who is working as regular employee and a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in King George Medical University, Lucknow.

B:- Shekhar Hospital (Pvt.) Ltd.:- The applicant Shekhar Hospital (Pvt.) Ltd. was incorporated on 26.12.1995 and is engaged in running a hospital at Indira Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The Directors of the hospital are: (I) Dr. Rich Mishra; (2) Mr. K.K. Sachan; (3) Dr. Harish Chandra and (4) Dr. A. K. Sachan.

C:- M/s Balaji Charitable Trust :- Ms. Richa Mishra is the managing trustee and Dr. A. K. Sachan is also a trustee of the said trust. The trust is running a nursing college and rendering health services. Dr A.K.Sachan is a regular employee and a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in King George Medical University, Lucknow.

7. In the application filed before the Settlement Commission on behalf of aforesaid three appl