Case Law Details
Rewari Central Cooperative Bank Ltd. Vs Directorate of Income Tax (ITAT Delhi)
The assessee being a District Cooperative Bank has filed Statement of Financial Transaction (SFT) with a delay of 210 days i.e. after receipt of the show cause notice issued by the Director of Income Tax (I & CI, Chandigarh). The explanation given by the assessee that the assessee has not received advisory notice issued u/s 285 BA (5) and the show cause notice (SCN) of penalty u/s 271FA due to change of mail id and further contended that, the delay in filing the return was not deliberate. By taking into the above facts and circumstances and also the fact that, the assessee has already filed SFT return, in our opinion, the Ld. A.O should have taken lenient view by adopting fair objective of the penalty proceedings.
The Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Dilip N Shroff Vs. Joint CIT (2007) ITR 519 S.C. held that, penalty proceedings are not initiated only to harass the assessee; approach of Assessing Officer while initiating penalty proceedings must be fair and objective. Further, in the case of Hindustan Steel Ltd. Vs. State of Orissa (1947) 83 ITR 26 held that, for the proposition that an order imposing penalty for failure to carry out a statutory obligation is the result of a quasi-criminal proceeding and penalty will not ordinarily be imposed unless the party obliged either acted deliberately in defiance of law or was guilty of conduct contumacious or dishonest or acted in conscious disregard of its obligation.
ITAT are of the opinion that the penalty of Rs. 1,05,000/- imposed by Ld. A.O u/s 271FA of the Act which was confirmed by CIT(A) deserves to be deleted.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT DELHI
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