Asstt. Commissioner Of Income Tax vs Registrar Of Companies And Ors.

This Appeal is preferred by the Asstt. Commissioner of Income Tax, New Delhi under Section 252(1) read with Section 252(3) of the Companies

Act, 2013 on being aggrieved by the action of the Registrar of Companies (""RoC"") in striking off the name of M/s Macro IT Systems Pvt. Ltd. (""the

Company"") from the Register of Companies.

It is stated by the Appellant that ""the Company"" is a Private Company Limited by shares, incorporated under the erstwhile Companies Act, 1956 on

29.07.2006 with CIN No. U45200DL2006PTC151401. The Authorised Share capital of the Company is Rs. 1,00,000. The registered Office of the

Company is at 36, 3rd Floor, Deepak Building, Nehru Place, New Delhi-110019. Therefore, the jurisdiction lies with this Tribunal.

The Appellant in its Appeal has averred that:

5.2 Search and seizure operation was carried out on Sh. Anand Kumar Jain, Sh. Naresh Kumar Jain & Others on 17.12.2015 engaged in the business

of providing accommodation entries. During the course of search, large numbers of incriminating documents found and seized. While examining the

seized documents the assessing officer of searched person came across with certain documents which pertained to M/ s Macro IT Systems Pvt. Ltd.

and after recording his satisfaction to this effect he has forwarded the satisfaction note and the relevant documents relating to M/ s Macro IT Systems

Pvt. Ltd. to the appellant being the AO of person other than the searched person (in both these cases the AO is the same.)

5.3 Upon examining these seized documents and on analysis of the bank statements and the electronic data seized during the course of search it is

found that the respondent company has undertaking certain financial transactions with the shell companies of Jain Brothers who are the entry

operators.

5.4 ""Jain Folder"" was found to be maintained in Tally software. The transactions carried out of accommodation entries through banking channels

were posted through payment and Receipt Vouchers which were visible in the output of these ledgers. Against most of these banking entries,

corresponding cash entries have been found posted through Journal Vouchers. The narration in most of the Vouchers is ""Cash"" written against the

transactions clearly specifying in this ledger payments made in cash, which exposes the whole arrangement put in place by the Jain Brothers to

provide accommodation entries to various beneficiaries through cheques/ DD/ RTGS/ NEFT in lieu of cash, through various paper and dummy

companies floated and controlled by them. Thus the Jain Brothers had created a folder in the Tally Software, with the name of the company as ""Jain"",

for recording the details of the accommodation entries being provided by them to various persons including M/ s Macro IT Systems Pvt. Ltd

It is submitted by the Appellant that it had issued notices dated 28.03.2018 under section 153A read with 153C of the IT Act to the Respondent

Company asking it to furnish the returns of income for the Assessment Years from 2012-13 to 2017-18. Further, notices dated 30.10.2018 under

section 142(1) of the IT Act,1961 had been issued to the Respondent Company for the A.Y. from 2012-13 to 2017-18.

It is submitted by the Appellant that during the Assessment proceedings for A.Y 2012-13 to 2017-18, the Appellant came to know from the MCA

website that the name of Company has been struck off from the Register of Companies by MCA/RoC vide-STK-7 Notice No.ROCDEL-

248(5)/STK-7/2879) dated 30.06.2017, in which the name of the company appears at Si. No 11522.

The Appellant contends that in order to frame the Assessment order and enable the IT Department to take effective steps for recovery of taxes

and initiate any consequential proceedings, there is a need for restoration of the Company, viz., M/s Macro IT Systems Pvt. Ltd. to the Register of

Companies.

That the Appellant has filed its Affidavit of Service dated 01.04.2019 wherein it is stated that the service has been effected on Respondent

company and its Directors through publication on 29.03.2019 in the daily newspapers namely, Financial Express (English) and Jansatta (Hindi).

Considering the fact that the notice was served upon the Respondents through publication and no one was present on behalf of the respondents, they

were proceeded ex-parte vide order dated 01.05.2019 of this Tribunal.

The Respondent No.1 i.e., ROC did not file reply despite opportunities. During the course of hearing on 03.02.2021, AROC submitted that ROC

has no objection to the revival of the Respondent Company.

It is observed that the Income Tax Department is an aggrieved party within the meaning of Section 252(1) read with 252(3) of the Companies Act,

2013 as it has to recover taxes payable by the Respondent Company and great prejudice will be caused to its revenues, if the name of the Company is

not restored back to the Register of the Companies.

Accordingly, in sequel to the above, we consider it to be just and equitable to allow restoration of the Company and allow the Appeal. The

Registrar of Companies, is directed to restore the name of the Company namely, M/s Macro IT Systems Pvt. Ltd. in its Register, as if the name of the

Company had not been struck off in accordance with Section 248(1) of the Companies Act, 2013. ROC is also directed to take any other penal action

against the other Respondents for default, if any, in accordance with the statutory/legal provisions.

The Appeal is allowed accordingly.

Let the copy of Order be supplied to the Parties.