Pradeep Dayanand Kothari Vs DCIT (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court held that prosecution initiated for the offence punishable under Section 276C(1) of the Act cannot be continued, in the light of the penalty proceedings initiated under Section 276C(1) of the Act have been already terminated by the Appellate Tribunal.
Facts- The second respondent lodged a complaint against the petitioner for the offences alleged u/s. 276C (1) & 277 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. It is alleged that the petitioner had carried out certain transactions through an undeclared account, but these transactions were not recorded in the regular books of accounts and the petitioner failed to disclose the same to the respondent Department for taxation.
Accordingly, AO proceeded with the reassessment and passed assessment order u/s. 143(3) r/w 147 of the Act on 30.03.2013. Appellate Authority and Tribunal dismissed the appeal. Subsequent to the reassessment, the department initiated penalty proceedings for the assessment years 2006-07 and 2007-08 by issuing show cause notices to the petitioner. While that being so, the petitioner served with notice for prosecution under Section 276C(1) of the Act. Subsequently, the assessment orders for the assessment years 2006-07 & 2007-08 were dropped by the Income tax authority vide order dated 05.06.2024. Therefore, the entire prosecution for the offence punishable under Section 276C(1) cannot be sustained as against the petitioner and liable to be quashed.
