Case Law Details
Pragati Green Meadows and Resorts Ltd. Vs M. Praneetha (Telangana High Court)
Income tax returns are public documents and they can be summoned by the Court. If same are produced before the Court , the same does not result in violation of Article 21 of Constitution of India, as they are Government documents and are accessible to others.
The case of the petitioner company is that it has purchased the suit lands in the name of respondent No.1, and to prove the same, it sought a direction to respondent No.3 to produce the income tax returns and bank statement of respondent No.2. Since the examination of the said documents would go to the roots of the case, the Court below ought to have allowed the said IAs and directed respondent No.3 to produce the said Apart from the same, if the said documents are produced before the Court below, no prejudice would be caused to respondent Nos.1 and 2.
The judgment relied on by the Court below in Raju Sebastian’s case (supra) cannot be made applicable to the facts of the present case under the pretext of infringement of privacy effecting Article 21 of the Constitution of India, as the issue involved in the present case is whether respondent No.2 had the financial capacity to purchase the suit property. Therefore, to decide the said issue, it is essential to produce income tax returns and bank statement of account of respondent No.2 before the Court below. If the same are produced before the Court below, the same does not result in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, as they are Government documents and are accessible to others.
In Pentakota Surya Appa Rao’s case (supra), a division Bench of this Court held that income tax returns are public documents and they can be summoned by the Court. In view of the above, the order of the Court below cannot be sustainable and is liable to be set aside.
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