9911796707
TMI Blog2003 (11) TMI 31X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 65 of 2003. At the request of the learned advocates, the petitions are finally heard today. In all these petitions the petitioners have been aggrieved by an order dated December 9,2002, passed by the respondent, whereby the respondent-the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax, Surat, had not waived interest, which was charged under the provisions of section 234A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). The facts giving rise to the petitions, in a nutshell, are as under: The petitioners had to file their returns of income before October 31,1991, for the assessment year 1991-92. The petitioners had not filed their returns before the last date for filing their returns. On May 19,1992, search and seizure operations had ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Directors-General (Investigation) have been empowered to reduce or waive penal interest in certain circumstances. Relevant clause of the said circular for the purpose of the petitioners is as under: "(i) Where, in the course of search and seizure operations, books of account have been taken over by the Department and were not available to the taxpayer to prepare his return of income; . . ." Upon knowing the fact that the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax has been empowered to reduce or waive penal interest charged under section 234A of the Act, the petitioners had submitted applications for waiver of interest under the provisions of section 119(2)(a) to the respondent. The said applications were filed somewhere in 1997. In pursuance of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tober 1992. It is his case that as the books of account or copies thereof were not with the petitioners during the aforestated period, it was impossible for the petitioners to file the returns and, therefore, the petitioners cannot be saddled with any liability to pay interest under section 234A of the Act in respect of the said period. It has been submitted by him that immediately upon getting the copies of the books of account, the returns had been filed. In one case the return had been filed immediately as the accounts were not required to be audited, whereas in other cases, where the accounts were required to be audited, the returns were filed in the month of March 1993. For the reasons stated hereinabove, it has been submitted by him ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not be waived. It has been submitted by him that the search and seizure operations or seizure of the books of account cannot be looked into for the reason that the date on which the search had taken place is subsequent to the last date on which the returns were required to be filed. He has also submitted that no application for return of the books was submitted by the petitioners but somebody else had submitted an application for return of the books of account. We have heard the learned advocates at length. It is not in dispute that the books of account belonging to the petitioners had been seized on May 19, 1992, as a result of the search and seizure operations, which had taken place on that day. It is also not in dispute that the copies ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ot be disputed that the books of account were not available to the taxpayers for certain period and during that period the petitioners could not have filed the returns. In our opinion, the submission of learned counsel appearing for the respondent is not just and proper when he says that the circular referred to hereinabove would not apply in the case of the petitioners simply because the books of account had been seized after the last date for filing the returns. Looking to the fact that the petitioners, even if they had desired to file the returns during the period when the books of account were in the custody of the concerned income-tax authorities, they could not have filed the returns and, therefore, that was one of the factors contri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
