Case Law Details
Prabir Kumar Shaw Vs Union of India (Patna High Court)
From the perusal of the complaint, it appears that with respect to the Assessment Year 1994-95 (Financial Year 1993-94), lesser tax liability was shown by the petitioners and, therefore, a prosecution has been launched against them by the Income Tax Department.
It has been submitted on behalf of the petitioners, without going into the details of the complaint, that the penalty which was imposed upon the petitioners was paid along with the entire tax liability. It has been submitted that at the pre-charge stage, the case continued and only adjournments were granted on several dates. It has further been submitted that the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short the Act) though provide for criminal prosecution for wrong information or concealment of information with respect to tax liability and the punishment is on the criminal mental culpability, but no useful purpose would be served in allowing the prosecution to continue at this stage when the complaint is of the year 2008 with respect to some anomaly in the disclosure of the petitioners for the Assessment Year 1994-95 (Financial Year 1993-94) and also when all the tax liabilities fixed on the petitioners have been paid.
Without going into the merits of the complaint with respect to the complaint being silent about the specific role played by the petitioners and the inference of culpable mental state of the petitioners in their capacity as partners of the firm, this Court, taking into account the year in which the offence was committed and the tax liability having been paid along with penalty, deems it appropriate to quash the proceedings and all such orders arising from the complaint and the order of cognizance.
This Court, in a number of cases, has defined the scope and ambit of the powers under Section 482 aforesaid section, has an inherent power to act ex debito justitiae to do real and substantial justice, for the administration of which alone it exists, or to prevent the abuse of the process of the Court. It has been clarified that the inherent powers of the Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. can be exercised to give an effect to an order under the Cr.P.C., to prevent the abuse of the process of the Court and to otherwise secure the ends of justice. No doubt, a caution has been laid that such powers are to be exercised sparingly, carefully and with much circumspection, but in a case of this kind, where the entire liability has been paid to the Government and there has not been any loss to the public exchequer, allowing this case to be continued after eleven years would only be an abuse of the process of the Court.
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