PCIT Vs Anuj Bansal (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court, in the case of PCIT vs. Anuj Bansal, dismissed the appeal filed by the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, reaffirming its earlier stance on the invalidity of the approval granted under Section 153D of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The appeal had raised a specific question regarding whether the supervisory and advisory involvement of the approving authority should be considered when examining the validity of approval under Section 153D. The Court noted that the appellant had placed additional material, such as internal correspondence records, to illustrate how the case was processed within the department, and referenced Section 144A of the Act. However, the Court emphasized that the issue of the validity of the Section 153D approval had already been conclusively settled in a prior decision (PCIT (Central)-2 v. Anuj Bansal, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 4159) where the department’s appeal was dismissed.
In its ruling dated April 2025, the Delhi High Court reiterated that the approval given under Section 153D was part of a composite and common order in Anuj Bansal’s case, and that its invalidity could not be re-opened. The Court declined to re-examine the substantive validity of the approval at this stage, thereby dismissing the current appeal. However, it left open for future proceedings the broader questions concerning the impact of Section 144A and the provisions of the Search and Seizure Manual, 2007. This decision reaffirms the finality of the earlier judgment in Anuj Bansal’s case while keeping related legal issues available for consideration in subsequent appropriate cases.
