Case Law Details
CIT Vs. Jagat Novel Exhibitors Private Limited (Delhi HC)– Main contention of the Assessee was that the notice under Section 147/ 148 of the Act was not issued to the respondent company in the name of the principal officer but was issued to Jagat Novel Exhibitors and without the words “Private Limited” as a suffix. Therefore, the notice was vague as it could not be ascertained whether it was issued to an individual, a firm, an HUF, etc. The notice, therefore, was void ab initio and accordingly the assessment order was a nullity.
On Appeal High Court has relied on SC judgment on the case of Chief Forest Conservator, Government of Andhra Pradesh Vs. Collector (2003) 3 SCC 472 in which Supreme Court examined the question of misdescription or misnomers of parties and the effect thereof as follows:-
“12. It needs to be noted here that a legal entity — a natural person or an artificial person — can sue or be sued in his/its own name in a court of law or a tribunal. It is not merely a procedural there are special provisions in the Constitution and the Code of Civil Procedure as to how the Central Government or the Government of a State may sue or be sued. So also there are special provisions in regard to other juristic persons specifying as to how they can sue or be sued. In giving description of a party it will be useful to remember the distinction between misdescription or misnomer of a party and misjoinder or non-joinder of a party suing or being sued. In the case of misdescription of a party, the court may at any stage of the suit/proceedings permit correction of the cause-title so that the party before the court is correctly described; however, a misdescription of a party will not be fatal to the maintainability of the suit/proceedings. Though Rule 9 of Order 1 CPC mandates that no suit shall be defeated by reason of the misjoinder or non-joinder of parties, it is important to notice that the proviso thereto clarifies that nothing in that Rule shall apply to non-joinder of a necessary party. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that the necessary party is before the court, be it a plaintiff or a defendant, otherwise, the suit or the proceedings will have to fail. Rule 10 of Order 1 CPC provides remedy when a suit is filed in the name of the wrong plaintiff and empowers the court to strike out any party improperly joined or to implead a necessary party at any stage of the proceedings.”
One of the questions, which arises for consideration, in such cases is whether there was prejudice. The test to be applied is whether the party receiving the notice would be in doubt whether the said notice is meant for him or not. If the recipient of notice was not in doubt that it was meant for him, the misnomer or misdescription is not fatal. Thus failure to mention the words “Principal Officer” on the notices is not fatal. Similarly, we do not think in the facts of the present case and it has not been held by the tribunal or the CIT (Appeals) that there was misnomer or misdescription because the words ‘Private Limited’ were missing in 4 out of 5 notices though the name “Jagat Novel Exhibitors” were clear. It has not resulted in misnomer or misdescription of parties which is fatal and makes the entire proceedings null and void.
HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
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