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TMI Blog2002 (2) TMI 8X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g Officer before the admission of the settlement application subsisted and recovery proceedings continued even after the admission of the said application, especially after the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of CIT v. Express Newspapers Ltd. [1994] 206 ITR 443? (The court, inter alia, made the following observation: It is equally evident that once an application made under section 245C is admitted for consideration, (after giving notice to, and considering the report of the Commissioner of Income-tax as provided by section 245D), the Commission shall have to withdraw the case relating to that assessment year (or years, as the case may be) from the assessing/appellate/ revising authority and deal with the case, as a whole, by itself. In other words, the proceedings before the Commission are not confined to the income disclosed before it alone, Once the application is allowed to be proceeded with by the Commission, the proceedings pending before any authority under the Act relating to that assessment year have to be transferred to the Commission and the entire case for that assessment year will be dealt with by the Commission itself.) 2. If the answer to question No. 1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... passed after the filing of the application, there will be no liability of interest under section 220(2). Question No. 3 Yes. The Commission has the power to reduce/waive interest chargeable under section 220(2)". Aggrieved, the Revenue has come up in appeal to this court. S. L. P. (C) Nos. 18012-18015 of 2000: The above special leave petitions have been filed against the order dated September 20, 1999, passed by the Income-tax Settlement Commission (IT & WT), Additional Bench, Calcutta. The said order came to be passed on the applications seeking for rectification of the earlier order dated February 16, 1999, placing reliance upon the decision of the Settlement Commission, Special Bench, in Anjum Mohammed Hussein Ghaswala, In re [1998] 230 ITR (AT) 1. The Special Bench felt obliged to apply the decision in 230 ITR (AT) 1 and allowed full waiver of interest charged under section 234B of the Act for the assessment years 1991-92, 1992-93 and for the assessment year 1993-94 allowed waiver of interest restricting to 50 per cent. of the interest charged under section 234B of the Act. Aggrieved, the Revenue has filed these petitions. It may be noticed even at this stage that on app ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rendered by a Bench of three learned judges. That was a case wherein a question of the nature now sought to be raised was not directly in issue or under detailed consideration and the judgment also specifically clarifies that the order therein was confined only to the question of jurisdiction of the Settlement Commission and the validity of its order taking seisin of the case. On the conclusion arrived at that the application filed before the Settlement Commission in that case was not in compliance with the first and foremost requirement of section 245C(1) the very application was held to be not maintainable and ought to have been rejected in limine. In the course of dealing with the said case, a conspectus of the relevant provisions of law came to be incidentally considered and there has been an observation at page 451 of the report that "it is equally evident that once an application made under section 245C is admitted for consideration (after giving notice to and considering report of the Commissioner of Income-tax as provided by section 245D) the Commission shall have to withdraw the case relating to that assessment year (or years, as the case may be) from the assessing/appell ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mplates reopening of the completed proceedings not for the benefit of the assessee but in the interests of the Revenue. it contemplates a situation where the case before the Commission cannot be satisfactorily settled unless some previously concluded proceedings are reopened which would normally be to the prejudice of the assessee. It is precisely for this reason that the section says that it can be done only with the concurrence of the assessee and that too for a period within eight years. This section cannot be read as empowering the Commission to do indirectly what cannot be done directly." At page 631 of the Report, it is further observed as follows: "Lastly, we may refer to Sri Poddar's submission based upon section 245F(1). According to him, sub-section (1) confers the powers of an income-tax authority upon the Settlement Commission including the power to reopen the assessments as contemplated by section 147. We do not know whether the power under section 147 can also be claimed by the Commission. But assuming it can, the said power has to be exercised in accordance with the provisions contained in sections 147 to 150 including sections 148 and 149. A mittedly, they were n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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