9911796707
TMI Blog2024 (4) TMI 713X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... trate (Spl.)-cum-Asst. Sessions Judge, Cuttack. The petitioners are also aggrieved by the order dated 22.02.2023 passed by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Spl.)-cum-Asst. Sessions Judge, Cuttack in 2(c) CC Case No. 09 of 2023 whereby the learned Court below has taken cognizance of the offences under Sections-276B/278B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (In short "The Act"). The petitioners have also assailed the order dated 05.01.2023 passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax according sanction under Section 279(1) of the Income Tax Act for prosecuting the present petitioners for the offences as mentioned above. 2. The case against the opposite parties put forth in the statutory complaint filed by the opposite party no. 1 is that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tatutory dues on the basis of the case flows of the company. Therefore, the delay has been caused in making payment of the TDS amount to the revenue. The petitioners have also contended that due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the month of March, 2020, they could not deposit the TDS amount for the Financial Year 2019-20. Therefore, there is no mense rea involved in the unavoidable act of the petitioner in depositing the TDS amount with the Revenue belatedly. Despite general explanation afforded by the petitioners, the opposite parties have mechanically dealt with those explanations and proceeded to file the statutory complaint against the petitioners. Hence, the petitioners seek, indulgence of this Court. 5. My Ray, learned Senior ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hand and another reported in [2023] 454 ITR 48 (Jharkhand). The relevant portion of the said judgment reads as under: "The amount has already been deposited with interest and there is no reason why the criminal proceeding shall proceed and the criminal proceeding was launched after receiving the said amount with interest, had it been a case that the case was immediately instituted and thereafter the tax deducted at source amount has been deposited with interest, the matter would have been different. As such the continuation of the proceedings will amount to an abuse of the process of the Court. Accordingly, the entire criminal proceedings and the cognizance orders in their respective cases, passed by the learned Special Economic Office ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the deposit which begins with the minimum of 31 days, ending at 214 days. It is not in dispute that the petitioners have by the time of consideration of the matter as to launching of the prosecution for such delayed deposit, had deposited the entire TDS with the interest as they were liable to pay as per this statutory provision for such delayed deposit of the TDS. The collected TDS with interest as above has been accepted and gone to the State Exchequer when by then no loss to the Revenue was standing to be viewed." 8. Mr. Ray submits that in the instant case also the opposite parties have accepted the delayed interest on the TDS amount as per the provision of law and after receiving the TDS amount along with interest initiated the Crim ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... consideration the rival contentions of learned counsels for the parties and the judgments relied upon by the petitioners, I am of the considered view that the maximum delay of 394 days for depositing the TDS amount to the revenue account have been well explained by the petitioners, therefore, the authorities ought to have been taken into consideration same, particularly for the reasons that the petitioners-company has suffered the I.B. proceeding and the restriction imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, I am of the view that the petitioners case is directly covered by the judgments cited in the case of Dev Multicom Pvt. Ltd. (supra) and M/s. D.N. Homes Pvt. Ltd. Khurda & another (supra), because the prosecution indeed has been initiated by ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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