Case Law Details
Ingenico International India Pvt. Ltd. Vs DCIT (Delhi High Court)
A plain reading of Section 241A shows that the mere issuance of the scrutiny notice under Section 143 (2) of the Act cannot stall the remittance of refund to the assessee. The refund can only be stalled if the conditions stipulated in Section 241A of the Act, to which we have made a reference above, are fulfilled, i.e., the A.O. records his reasons in writing as to why the release of refund is likely to affect the interests of the Revenue and that this step of the A.O. receives the imprimatur [which obviously would mean prior approval] of his superior officer, i.e., Principal Commissioner or Commissioner as the case may be.
The Revenue has brought nothing on record to show that an order under Section 241A of the Act has been issued. As a matter of fact, no counter-affidavit has been filed by the Revenue.
Therefore, the mandate of the law requires the Revenue to remit the amount determined in its order dated 02.10.2019 to the petitioner along with interest as required under the provisions of the Act. This is also the view of the coordinate Benches of this Court taken in Maple Logistics and Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd. (Supra)
Before we part, we may also indicate that prior to the A.O. passing an order under Section 241A of the Act, it may possibly be a constructive approach if the assessee is heard. There are several cases where assessees‟ are looking for liquidity in the form of money received via refund and even if the A.O. is of the view that release of refund is likely to adversely affect the interests of the Revenue, the Revenue could, in a given case, take security in the form of bank guarantee or other solvent security as deemed fit and thus, in a sense, balance the interests of both the assessee and the Revenue. We have only given one illustration, there could be several situations of like nature and therefore, perhaps hearing the assessee at some stage, either before or after, the A.O. may help in resolving such disputes.
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