Wakil Kumar vs Commissioner of Income Tax and Others

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

The present writ application has been filed by the petitioner for a direction to respondent No. 2, Assistant Director of Income Tax (Investigation), Muzaffarpur, to release the amount of Rs. 13.90 lakhs in his favour which has been seized from the possession of three persons, namely, Vijay Kumar Sah, Harbansh Kumar Sharma and Vinay Kumar Singh under the provisions of Section 132A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The petitioner claims to be the owner of the aforesaid money.

The question as to whether the petitioner is the owner of the money or not cannot be gone into in this court. Admittedly, money has been recovered from other persons. The Income Tax Department is making investigation with regard to the said matter.

In that view of the matter, no case for interference is made out at this stage, especially when the petitioner is not the person from whose possession money has been recovered.

Accordingly, this writ application is dismissed with an observation that it will be open for the petitioner to approach the authorities and substantiate his claim and the authorities will pass order in accordance with law within three months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order.