RANJITSINH NARSINH VAGHELA vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER WARD 3, GANDHINAGAR

C/SCA/15531/2021 ORDER DATED: 15/02/2022 IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 15531 of 2021 ========================================================== RANJITSINH NARSINH VAGHELA Versus INCOME TAX OFFICER WARD 3, GANDHINAGAR ========================================================== Appearance: MR. HARDIK V VORA(7123) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1 MR MR BHATT SENIOR COUNSEL WITH MR KARAN SANGHANI, ADVOCATE FOR M R BHATT & CO.(5953) for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2 MS MAITHILI D MEHTA(3206) for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2 ========================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA and HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE NISHA M. THAKORE

Date : 15/02/2022

ORAL ORDER (PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA) 1 By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicant – an assessee has prayed for the following reliefs: “a. A writ of certiorari or any other writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari allowing stay of demand arising out of notice dated 17.02.2020 for amount of Rs.6,19,27,000/-; b. A writ of certiorari or any other writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the attachment order dated 28.02.2020 attaching pension bank account no.01690100006196 with Bank of Baroda, Bank of account no.607036049815 with Ahmedabad Dist. Co- Op. Bank and account no.202010110016502 with Bank of India and to instruct respondents to release the bank account. c. Pending the admission, hearing and final disposal of this petition, to instruct respondents to release the bank accounts; d. Pass any other order(s) as this Hon’ble Court may deed fit and more appropriate in order to grant interim relief to the petitioner; Page 1 of 4

C/SCA/15531/2021 ORDER DATED: 15/02/2022 e. Any other and further relief deemed just and proper be granted in the interest of justice; f. To provide for the cost of this petition.” 2 We have heard Mr. Hardik Vora, the learned counsel appearing for the writ applicant and Mr. M. R. Bhatt, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. Karan Sanghani, the learned advocate appearing for the Revenue. 3 The writ applicant herein is a retired government servant. It appears that for the assessment year 2012-13, no return of income was filed under Section 139(1) of the Act on the premise that the income had not exceeded the threshold limit which makes filing of the return mandatory. 4 The case was reopened under Section 147 of the Act by issuing a notice under Section 148 of the Act dated 28th March 2019 on the basis of information received from the DDIT(Investigation), Unit-1(3), Ahmedabad that the assessee has received cash amounting to Rs.4,32,36,000/- during the F. Y. 2011-12. 5 The Assessing Officer proceeded to pass the assessment order dated 30th December 2019 under Section 144 read with Section 147 of the Act for the assessment year 2012-13. The operative part of the assessment order reads thus: “3.16 Subject to the above remarks, the total income of the assessee is determined on the basis of statement of income filed alongwith ROI dt. 22/05/2019 and as discussed above, as under: Income as per statement of income Rs.1,40,764/- Add: Bank interest on FDs – as discussed above Rs.7,11,37,986/- Assessed Income Rs.7,12,78,750/- ======== Page 2 of 4

C/SCA/15531/2021 ORDER DATED: 15/02/2022 Assessed under Section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax. Caculate tax accordingly and give credit for prepaid taxes. Charges interest u/s. 234A, 234B, 234C and 234D of the I.T. Act as the case may be. Issued demand notice and challan. Issued penalty notice u/s. 274 r.w.s. 271(1)(c) of the I.T. Act for concealment of income.” 6 The aforesaid order of assessment passed by the Assessing Officer has been challenged by the writ applicant by filing an appeal under Section 246(A) of the Act before the Commissioner of Income Tax. 7 However, it appears that the Assessing Officer proceeded to pass three orders of attachment of the bank accounts in exercise of powers under Sub-section (3) of Section 226 of the Act. One of the bank accounts attached by the Assessing Officer is a pension account. The writ applicant has preferred an application dated 12th April 2021 addressed to the Assessing Officer for releasing the pension account from attachment. The application filed by the writ applicant is at page : 102 of the paper book. 8 It is not in dispute that the aforesaid application is yet to be looked into by the Assessing Officer. 9 What emerges as on date is that there is an appeal before the CIT against the assessment order and there is an application filed by the writ applicant addressed to the Assessing Officer for release of the pension account. 10 We dispose of this writ application with a direction to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer to take up the application filed by the writ applicant dated 12th April 2021 and decide the same in accordance with law within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the Page 3 of 4

C/SCA/15531/2021 ORDER DATED: 15/02/2022 writ of this order. 11 We also permit the writ applicant to file an appropriate application before the CIT(A) for the purpose of stay of demand. It is now well settled that the CIT(A) has an inherent power as an appellate authority to pass an appropriate interim order pending the final disposal of the appeal including stay of recovery. If any such application is filed by the writ applicant, the CIT(A) shall take it up for hearing expeditiously and pass an appropriate order. 12 It goes without saying that ultimately, if the CIT(A) deems fit to grant any relief to the writ applicant subject to any condition pending the appeal, the orders of attachment of the three bank accounts would automatically not remain in operation. 13 With the aforesaid this writ application stands disposed of. (J. B. PARDIWALA, J) (NISHA M. THAKORE,J) CHANDRESH Page 4 of 4