THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE P.SAM KOSHY AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.TUKARAMJI WRIT PETITION No.26482 of 2023 ORDER :(per Hon’ble Sri Justice P.SAM KOSHY The present writ petition has been filed seeking for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus for setting aside the impugned order dated 18.04.2023 (Annexure P1) passed by respondent No.2 under clause(d) of Section 148A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, ‘the Act’) for the assessment year 2019-2020.

2. Heard Mr. M.Naga Deepak, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.Vijhay K.Punna, learned Senior Standing Counsel for Income Tax appearing for respondents.

3. The brief facts relevant for adjudication of the present writ petition are that the petitioner establishment namely M/s.Bartronics India Limited filed a company petition under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, before the National Company Law Tribunal, Bench-1, Hyderabad (briefly referred to hereinafter as ‘NCLT’) which was registered as C.P. (IB) No.357/7/HDB/2019. The said company petition stood admitted and proceedings for Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) was initiated. One Mr. Chinnam Poorna Chandra Rao was appointed as the Resolution Professional to oversee the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process. In the process, a Committee of Creditors (CoC) was constituted to inter alia evaluate the resolution plans received in respect of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of the petitioner and public announcements were made and Expression of Interest (EoI) from entities interested in submitting resolution plans were invited.

4. M/s.Antanium India Private Limited was the successful bidder and their resolution plan was accepted and approved by the Committee of Creditors vide order dated 10.03.2022 in I.A.No.68 of 2021 in C.P. (IB) No.357/7/HDB/2019. By virtue of the resolution plan approved by the NCLT, M/s.Antanium India Private Limited took over the management and control of the affairs of the petitioner establishment and stepped into the shoes of the petitioner in the course of taking over the management.

5. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, once when the resolution plan stood approved by the NCLT and the successful resolution applicant i.e. M/s.Antanium India Private Limited having taken over the management including its management and control, the authorities concerned could not have issued any further notices in respect of any further liability which till then was not claimed or raised. M/s.Antanium India Private Limited the successful resolution applicant had taken over the petitioner establishment on a clean slate basis. All earlier liabilities other than those which are reflected in the resolution plan stands extinguished.

6. Referring to clause 3.3.2, it was contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the company shall have no liability any further towards any financial creditor relating to the period prior to the NCLT’s approval. It was further contended that claims of the financial creditor shall immediately upon the approval of the resolution plan stands irrevocable and unconditionally extinguished. It was also the condition to the resolution plan that pursuant to the approval of the resolution plan by the NCLT, there shall be no further liability towards the operational creditors with regard to any claims relating in any manner of the period prior to the approval of the resolution plan.

7. As per clause 3.3.1, all such liabilities shall immediately irrevocably and unconditionally stand fully and finally discharged and the said operational creditors shall deem to have waived all rights to invoke or enforce the same. The order of NCLT dated 10.03.2022 while approving the resolution plan had categorically held that all crystalized liabilities and unclaimed liabilities of the corporate debtor i.e. the petitioner as on the date of passing of the order by the NCLT shall stand extinguished on the approval of its resolution plan.

8. Learned Senior Standing Co