Income Tax Officer, Ward 10(1) vs Registrar Of Companies And Ors

Sumita Purkayastha, Member (T)

This petition has been filed by Income Tax Authority invoking the provisions of Section 252 of the Companies Act, 2013 for restoration of the name of the Respondent No. 2 company, viz GEMSTONE ADVISORS Pvt. LTD, in the Register of Companies maintained by the RoC, Respondent No. 1.

Other than the RoC, none appeared on behalf of the respondent No. 2 &3 to oppose the prayer made by the petitioner, hence are proceeded ex-parte. Respondent No. 1 the RoC submits that they have no objections to the prayer of the petitioner being granted by this bench.

Vide Proceedings initiated by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, through the office of the RoC, names of several companies were struck off for want of filing Statutory Returns.

Respondent No. 2 company, which had not filed any Return or Financial Statement, was duly struck off from the Register of Companies vide STK-7 dated 08.08.2018.

Invoking the provision of section 252 of the Act, the Income Tax Dept. prays for its restoration in order to carry out proceedings initiated against them. As per averments, in the information available with the Income Tax Department it is observed that the Respondent Company had filed its Income Tax Return for A.Y. 2017-18 on 19.01.2018. The Income Tax Return of the Respondent Company for the A.Y. 2017-18 was picked up by the Computer Aided Scrutiny Selection (CASS) for Scrutiny assessment proceedings and the Notice dated 16.08.2018 under Section 143(2) of the I.T. Act has been issued. Statutory notice under Section 142(1) of the I.T. Act was issued on 01.05.2019 asking for specific details from the Respondent Company.

Ld. Standing Counsel for the IT dept. submits that Scrutiny Assessment Proceedings in respect of the Respondent Company for the A.Y. 2017-18 is still pending. In view of the grounds raised by the applicant, being an aggrieved person, the prayer can be entertained u/s 252(3) of the Code.

The petition is therefore allowed. The RoC is therefore directed to restore the name of the Respondent Company in their Register and also proceed to take such other and further penal action against the respondents in accordance with the statutory provisions.

We however make it clear that this Bench has only directed restoration of the name of the appellant company in the Register of Companies maintained by the ROC on the basis of averment made in the petition and in no way endorse or have adjudicated about their entitlement to recover which shall be adjudicated by the department subject to the laws of limitation governing such recoveries. Charges involved in seeking restoration of the company's name with the office of the RoC shall be borne by the applicant. Petition is disposed off in terms of the above. Compliance be made with the RoC within 30 days.