Income Tax Dept. Is Duty Bound To Provide All Material Information On Which Reliance Was Placed To The Assessee: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court has held that the Department is duty-bound and is mandatorily required to provide all material information or inquiry conducted on which reliance is being placed, along with supporting documents, to the petitioner as per the provisions of Section 148A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Deepak Roshan has observed that supporting documents have not been provided to the assessee. The department did not provide the details uploaded on the Insight portal, along with the information gathered from the investigation wing and new information uploaded on the Insight portal, to the assessee.

The petitioner/assessee is a charitable and religious trust registered with the Registrar of Companies under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 and also registered under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The purpose of the assessee is to provide benefits to entire members of the diocese of Chotanagpur region and of the whole of India, management of churches, and other social welfare activities.

The petitioner company has been served with one notice under Section 148A(b) for the Financial Year 2019-20. Upon issuance of notice under Section 148A(b), the petitioner has duly responded and filed a detailed reply. The petitioner has specifically raised an objection with respect to the issuance of notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act, 1961.

The petitioner submitted that the Show Cause Notice was issued in utter violation of the provisions of Section 148A inasmuch as the SCN has been issued without providing details of the information or inquiry conducted on which reliance is being placed, along with supporting documents as allegedly enclosed with the impugned SCN. Though the SCN contains three pages, However, no enclosure is attached that can provide details of the information or inquiry conducted on which reliance is being placed, along with supporting documents.

Section 148A(a) deals with the conduct of an inquiry, if required, with the prior approval of specified authorities, with respect to the information that suggests that the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment.

The court remitted the matter back to the respondent to supply all the relied-upon documents on the basis of which the notice under Section 148 A(b) has been issued and pass the order strictly in accordance with the law as mandated in the provision itself.

Counsel For Petitioner: Rahul Lamba, Aditya Mohan Khandelwal

Counsel For Respondent: R.N. Sahay, Anurag Vijay

LL Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Jha) 74

Case Title: M/s Chotanagpur Diocesson Trust Asson. Versus UOI

Case No.: W.P.(T) No. 2042 of 2023

Click Here To Read The Order