Pawan Kumar Agrawala Vs Income Tax Officer (Orissa High Court)
The Chief Justice bench of Orissa High Court, of late has not been entertaining writ petition against notice u/s 148 in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Anshul Jain.
This is notwithstanding the fact that on 1st February 2023, the Supreme Court in the case of Godrej Sara Lee clearly laid down the principles on which the alternative remedy is not an effective remedy when subject matter of challenge is jurisdiction.
In the instant case, the subject matter of challenge was limitation as well as change of opinion but the Court refused to entertain the writ in view of its earlier judgement in the case of Shiv Metallics and Kailash Kedia.
The stand taken by Hon’ble Orissa High Court , though is against all other high courts.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF ORISSA HIGH COURT
1. The memo of appearance filed by Mr. S. S. Mohapatra, learned Senior Standing Counsel for Revenue Department on behalf of Opposite Parties 1 to 3 is taken on record.
2. In view of the order passed by this Court on 1st December, 2022 in a batch of writ petitions of which W.P.(C) No.9191 of 2022 (Kailash Kedia v. Income Tax Officer) was a lead matter and the subsequent order dated 10th January, 2023 passed in W.P.(C) No.36314 of 2022 (Shiv Metalliks Pvt. Ltd., Rourkela v. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Sambalpur), the Court declines to entertain the present writ petition, but leaves it open to the Petitioner to raise all grounds available to the Petitioner in accordance with law including the grounds urged in the present petition at the appropriate stage as explained by the Court in those orders.
3. The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms.
