Binoy Kodiyeri Moves Kerala High Court Against Income Tax Department's Notice Seeking To Re-Open Assessment For Previous Years

Binoy Kodiyeri, son of CPM politician Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, has moved a plea before the Kerala High Court against the Income Tax Department alleging that the procedure adopted by the IT department in issuing certain notices to him was "arbitrary, illegal, unsustainable and in gross violation of the principles of natural justice".

The plea alleges that the petitioner and his family "have constantly been the target of vicious, politically motivated campaigns and conspiracies". It mentioned that the petitioner's brother had been wrongfully arrested earlier on "trumped up allegations" and in judicial custody for almost a year.

The petitioner submitted that proceedings were initiated by the Income Tax Department on alleged complaints for assessment years 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2018-19. It added that the respondent is obligated to give copies of the documents relied upon by him in initiating proceedings under the Income Tax Act but that the respondent refused to provide a copy of the satisfaction note and documents relied on by them in issuing certain notices, thereby violating of the principles of natural justice.

The petitioner alleged that the respondent intends to re-open the assessment for a total of 7 assessment years from 2015-16 to 2021-22 which was in clear violation of the provisions of Section 153C of the Income Tax Act. Section 153C provides for the re-opening of assessments for only the preceding six years.

The petitioner also added that the respondent did not reveal any information regarding the incriminating material alleged to have been recovered in the search conducted under Section 153A and as such, any proposals to re-open assessments are not maintainable.

Accordingly, the petitioner has approached the Kerala High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution to quash the notices issued by the respondent and to direct the respondent to hand over all the documents relied upon by them while issuing notices along with the satisfaction note based on which the proceedings were initiated under Section 153C of the Income Tax Act.

The plea was moved by Advocates Aswin Gopakumar, Anwin Gopakumar, Saranya Babu, Aditya Venugopalan, Nikitha Susan Paulson, Mahesh Chandran and Shallet K Sam.

Case Number: WP(C) No. 7727 of 2024

Case Title: Binoy Kodiyeri v. The Assistant Commissioner