M/S.NOORNADU NORTH SERVICE CO-OP BANK LTD,ALAPPUZHA vs. THE JT DIT(I & CI), KOCHI

This appeal at the instance of the assessee is directed against the consolidate order of the CIT(A) dated 14.05.2019. The relevant assessment year is 2012-2013. The order of the CIT(A) arises out of the order passed u/s 272A(2)(c) r.w.s. 274 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

2.1 The assessee is a Co-operative Society registered under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, 1969. The assessee was served with notice u/s 133(6) of the Income-tax Act. The assessee was directed to furnish details of the persons who had deposited above Rs.5 lakhs during the financial years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 & 2012-2013. The assessee was also directed to give details of the persons, who had received interest income exceeding Rs.10,000 during the above

. 2 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd. mentioned financial years. The assessee did not furnish the details called for under the notice issued u/s 133(6) of the I.T.Act. The Assessing Officer, therefore, initiated penalty proceedings u/s 272A(2)(c) r.w.s. 274 and imposed penalty of Rs.81,300 @ Rs.100 per day for the period from 30.09.2013 to 22.12.2015 (till the date of order imposing penalty).

2.2 Aggrieved by the order of the imposition of penalty, the assessee preferred appeal to the first appellate authority. The CIT(A) dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee.

2.3 Aggrieved by the order of the CIT(A), the assessee has filed the present appeal. The grounds raised read as follows:-

“1. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) failed to see that approval of the authorities concerned was not obtained by the I. T.O. (Intelligence), Kozhikode before issuing notice u/s 133(6) of the Income Tax Act 1961 and that the notice and proceedings initiated were not valid in as much as the statutory requirements to issue notice u/s 133(6) of Income Tax Act 1961 were not fulfilled.

2. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) failed to see that I. T.O. (Intelligence) is not an authority to invoke provision u/s 133(6).

3. The Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) ought to have seen that the information under Section 133(6) shall be called for only for the purpose of the Income Tax Act 1961 and no purpose was mentioned in the notice issued by the Income Tax Officer (Intelligence). 4. The Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) ought to have seen that the information called for under Section 133(6) should be useful for, or relevant to any enquiry as specified in the said Section and as instructed in para 4.3 of Chapter 4 of Manual of Office Procedure which states that u/s 133, the Assessing Officer, the Addl. Commissioner and the Commissioner (Appeals) may, call for certain information relevant for any proceedings under the Act.

. 3 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd.

5. The Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) ought to have seen that the "inquiry" and "enquiry" have different and distinct meaning in the Income Tax Act 1961 and refers to different contexts and that the information for the purpose of the Act which are useful for, or relevant to any "enquiry" only shall be called for under Section 133(6) and that there was no mention in the notice issued by Income Tax Officer (Intelligence) about any such "enquiry" under the Income Tax Act 1961.

8. The Appellant prays that the penalty of Rs.81,300/- imposed by the Joint Director of Income Tax (I&CI), Kochi in respect of non-furnishing of information called for under Section 133(6) by the Income Tax Officer (Intelligence), may be deleted and appellate order of Commissioner (Appeals) may be quashed.

2.4 None appeared on behalf of the assessee, hence, we proceed dispose of this appeal on merits after hearing the learned Departmental Representative.

2.5 The learned Departmental Representative submitted that the Cochin Bench of the Tribunal in the case of The Kakoor Service Co-operative Bank Ltd. in & Others (21 appeals) order dated 23.08.2017 had adjudicated an identical issue in favour of the Revenue.

. 4 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd.

''8. I have heard the rival contentions and perused the material on record. From the grounds raised and the argument note submitted by the assessee, I am of the view that three contentions are raised by the assessee in this appeal; namely; (i) ITO (Intelligence) does not have jurisdiction to issue notice u/s 133(6) of the I T Act; (ii) the order passed u/s 272A(2)(c) is barred by limitation; (iii) there was reasonable cause, as mentioned in section 2738 of the Act for non furnishing information sought u/s 133(6); therefore, penalty u/s 272A(2) ( c) of the I T Act is to be quashed.

8.1 I shall take up for adjudication each of the above three contentions as under: i) ITO (Intelligence) does not have jurisdiction to issue notice u/s 133(6) of the I T Act:

Section 133(6) of the I T Act 1961 is unambiguous and clear. The department under the said section has power to call for information in relation to such points or matters which would be useful for, or relevant to any proceeding under the Act from 'any person' including a 'Banking Company' or 'any Officer' thereon. Later, an amendment was introduced as per the Finance Act 1995 whereby, the words ''enquiry or" were inserted before the word ''proceeding'' in Section 133(6), also adding the '2nd proviso' to the said provision, with effect from 1.7.1995. The effect of the said amendment is that, the power to call for information under the un-amended Act which was confined only in relation to a 'pending proceeding' came to be widened, and even in a case where no proceeding was pending, such information could be called for as part of the enquiry, subject to the rider that, such power was not to be exercised by any income tax authority below the rank of Director or Commissioner without the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner, as the case may be. The said amendment was brought about as a measure to tackle tax evasion effectively, as clarified by the Central Board of Direct

. 5 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd. Taxes (CBDT) vide Circular no. 717 dated 14.8.1995, which reads as follows: "Power to call for information when no proceeding is pending. - ...

41.2 At present the provisions of sub-section (6) of section 133 empower Income-tax authorities to call for information which is useful for, or relevant to, any proceeding under the Act which means that these provisions can be invoked only in cases where the proceedings are pending and not otherwise. This acts as a limitation or a restraint on the capability of the Department to tackle evasion effectively. It is, therefore, thought necessary to have the power to gather information which after proper enquiry, will result in initiation of proceedings under the Act.

41.3 With a view to having a clear legal sanction, the existing provisions to call for information have been amended. Now, the income- tax authorities have been empowered to requisition information which will be useful for or relevant to any enquiry or proceedings under the Income-tax Act in the case of any person. The Assessing Officer would, however, continue to have the power to requisition information in specific cases in respect of which any proceeding is pending as at present. However, an Income-tax authority below the rank of the Director or Commissioner can exercise this power in respect of an inquiry in a case where no proceeding is pending, only with the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner."

8.2 In the instant case, notice u/s 133(6) of the Act was issued by the ITO (Intelligence) after obtaining necessary approval from the Director of Income Tax (Intelligence). The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Kathiroor Service Co-op Bank Ltd vs C/T (CIB) & others, reported in 360 ITR 243 have considered an identical case and decided that the ITO(CIB) has power to issue notice u/s 133(6) of the IT Act The relevant findings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, read as follows:

19. In view of the aforesaid, we are of the view that the powers under section 133(6) are in the nature of survey and a general enquiry to identify persons who are likely to have taxable income and whether they are in compliance with the provisions of the Act. It would not fall under the restricted domains of being area specific" or "case specific". Section 133(6) does not refer to any enquiry about any particular person or assessee, but pertains to information in relation to . 6 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd.

"such points or matters" which the assessing authority issuing notices requires. This clearly illustrates that the information of general nature can be called for and names and addresses of depositors who hold deposits above a particular sum is certainly permissible.

275(1) . (c) in any other case after the expiry of the financial year in which the proceedings, in the course of which action for the imposition of penalty has been initiated, are completed, or six months from the end of the month in which action for imposition of penalty is initiated, whichever period expires later.

8.5 Admittedly, penalty proceedings u/s 272A(2)(c) was initiated on 12.8.2014 by issuance of notice u/s 274 of the I T Act and the order imposing penalty u/s 272A(2)(c) was passed

. 7 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd. on 19.9.2014. Therefore, the penalty order is well within the time limit prescribed u/s 275(1)(c) of the Act The Judgment of the Hon'ble Rajasthan High Court, relied on by the Id AR of the assessee, in the case of CIT vs Sri Jithendra Singh Rathore, is not applicable to the facts of the instance case. In the case considered by the Hon'ble Rajasthan High Court the penalty proceedings u/s 2710 was initiated by issuing notice on 25.3.2003 and the penalty order was passed only on 30.9.2003 by which time, six months period mentioned u/s 275(l)(c) had already expired. The contention of the Id AR that notice issued u/s 133(6) should be reckoned for considering the time limit u/s 275(1)( c) of the Act is de-void of any merits; because Section 275(1)( c) prescribes the time limit only from the date of initiation of penalty proceedings; namely issuance of notice u/s 274 of the Act for the aforesaid reasons, I hold that the order passed by the Jt Director of Income Tax (Intelligence) is a valid order. (iii) there was reasonable cause, as mentioned in section 2738 of the Act for non furnishing information sought u/s 133(6); therefore, penalty u/s 272A(2) (c) of the I TAct is to be quashed: 8.6 The assessee has not offered any valid reason for not furnishing the information called for u/s 133(6) of the Act. Many of the notices issued by the ITO (Intelligence) were never responded to by the assessee. In many instances the Assessing Officer has mentioned that when they had approached, the assessee Society, for seeking information u/s 133(6) of the Act there was total lack of co-operation on the part of the assessee society as well as threat (reference order imposing penalty u/s 272A(2)(c) in appeals and ITA N0.217/C/ 2017). Since there is no reasonable cause furnished by the assessee as mentioned u/s 2738 of the I T Act for non furnishing of information sought by the ITO(intelligence) u/s 133(6) of the Act I am of the view that the order imposing penalty cannot be quashed. It is ordered accordingly.

9 In the result, the appeal in 2015 is dismissed.

. 8 M/s.Nooranad North Service Co-op Bank Ltd.

11 To sum-up all the 21 appeals filed by the different assessees are dismissed." 4. In view of the above order of the Tribunal which is identical to the facts of the present case, we hold that the CIT(A) is justified in upholding the order passed u/s 272A(2)(c) of the Income-tax Act. It is ordered accordingly.

Order pronounced on this 24th day of October, 2019.