Case Law Details
Brief of the Case
Delhi High Court held In the case of Vishwanath Khanna vs. CCIT that as per section 293, no civil suit lies against the Income Tax Department with respect to any dues claimed from the Income Tax Department if such dues are/can be the subject matter of proceedings under the Income Tax Act. In the given case it was specifically mentioned that if the Order wrongly disallows the claim, then assessee had appropriate remedy to challenge the said order in an appeal but the assessee failed to do so. This suit in view of Section 293 of the Income Tax Act is not the remedy and the only remedy of the assessee was to challenge the order in the appropriate forum.
Facts of the Case
The Assessee is a proprietor of M/s Foto Traders. A search and seizure operation was carried out on 4.2.1995 in the office and business premises of the assessee. In terms of the search and seizure operation, total silver of 7003.859 kgs was seized from the plaintiff alongwith cash of Rs.49,86,500/-. The seized silver was valued at Rs.4,44,66,395/- at that time and since the value of silver which was seized by the Income Tax Department would fluctuate during the pendency of assessment proceedings to be taken, hence, assessee had filed a writ petition for return of the silver bars, and in this writ petition by an Order dated 08.10.1998, this Court directed the defendants to release the seized silver to the plaintiff on plaintiff making payment of the value of the seized silver. Assessee further pleads that accordingly he kept on making payments of different amounts in different installments to the defendants and consequently plaintiff got released the seized silver from the defendants
The dispute in the present suit pertains to payment of interest on the amounts of three pay orders of the value of Rs.30,50,000/- deposited by the plaintiff with the defendants on 05.04.2000 but which were not encashed by the defendants and hence the principal amount of Rs.30,50,000/- remained dormant in the suspense accounts of the banks without interest accruing thereon. These three pay orders were got enchased by the plaintiff in June, 2004/August, 2004, and therefore, this suit is filed claiming interest on this amount of Rs.30,50,000/- from the date of deposit of pay orders with the defendants on 05.04.2000 till the dates of their encashment in June, 2004/August, 2004.
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The department had not issued any refunds in a group of assessees even though the appeals had been disposed of in favour of the assessees and the Tribunal had also given further relief. The department had wrongly adjusted against the dues of others of the group without written consent of the assessees. And even such adjusted amount had also been decided as refundable by the ITAT. Yet the department is not issuing refunds. The group of assessees went to highest authority i.e. Finance Minister and even President of India. The CBDT had given wrong reports to the FM and even to the president of India. The tussle is continuing for the last 20 years and some of the group assessees even died without seeing the refunds. Now the High Court decides that no suit against the department. Where can the poor assessees go for redress.