Commissioner of Income Tax vs Aridhaman Jain

G.S. Singhvi, J.—This is a petition u/s 256 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for directing the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal to refer the following question of law to this court:

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was right in law in cancelling the interest charged u/s 215 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, by directing to appropriate the seized cash towards advance tax when the provisions of section 132B on determination of liability at the time of regular assessment ?"

By placing reliance on Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Mahesh Munjal (HUF), Shri R.P. Sawhney submitted that the question framed by the petitioner should be referred to the High Court. On the other hand, Shri Mittal invited our attention to the orders passed by the Tribunal in the appeal filed by the assessee and the application filed by the Revenue u/s 256(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and argued that after having adjusted the amount recovered from the petitioner during the raid towards the advance tax payable by the petitioner, the assessing authority could not charge interest from the petitioner by invoking Section 215 of the Act.

After having thoughtfully considered the rival submissions and having perused the orders passed by the Tribunal, we are of the opinion that no referable question of law arises in this petition. The Tribunal has rightly held that after adjusting the amount recovered from the petitioner towards the advance tax, the assessing authority could not invoke Section 215 for charging interest from the petitioner.

Learned counsel for the Revenue could not convince us that the findings recorded by the Tribunal suffer from any error of law.

Consequently, we hold that no referable question of law arises in this case. Hence, the petition is dismissed.