2016 (9) TMI 505

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..... ome Tax Act, 1961 (Act) by which the petitioner's proceedings pending with the Income Tax Officer (case) has been transferred from Mumbai to Chennai. 3. Brief Facts : (a) The petitioner is engaged in buying and selling online lottery tickets of State Governments. The petitioner purchases lottery tickets in bulk either directly from the State Government and / or persons authorized to sell lottery tickets by the State Government. On purchase, the petitioner in turn sells the lottery tickets to retailers, who sell the same to individual buyers of the lottery tickets. (b) In the course of its business, the petitioner purchases lottery tickets in bulk from one Summit Online Trade Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (for short 'Summit') of the Sta .....

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..... wcause notice dated 3rd March, 2015, the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax sent a further Notice dated 14th September, 2015 seeking to centralize the petitioner's case with Sugal and Damani Group. The basis of the proposed transfer was that the petitioner is an authorized distributor of Summit and that they were searched consequent to the search carried out on the Sugal and Damani Group. Thereafter, a personal hearing was granted on 22nd September, 2015 to the petitioner wherein the petitioner filed its submissions and reiterated that they are in no way connected with Summit and / or the Sugal and Damani Group. (f) On 20th September, 2015 the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax passed the impugned order transferring the petitioner& .....

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..... Mere stating that the objections have been duly considered, cannot be itself negate the objections and uphold the notice for transfer. The primafacie consideration must provide a link between the basis of the notice and the conclusion arrived at after prima facie consideration of the objections. This is clearly lacking in the impugned order dated 20th September, 2015. We also notice that the impugned order places reliance upon a panchanama to support the transfer when the same finds no mention in the show cause notices or even relied upon by the Revenue in the affidavitinreply filed. This is also a breach of principles of natural justice. In fact before us, no reliance was placed upon the panchanama. 5. In the circumstances, we set aside t .....

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