APEX FINANCE AND LEASING LTD. VS COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX
1995 P T D 1273
[207 1 T R 781]
[Supreme Court of India]
Present: R.M. Sahai and Dr. A.S. Anand, JJ
APEX FINANCE AND LEASING LTD.
versus
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX and others
Civil Appeal No.7232 of 1993, decided on 03/12/1993.
(Appeal by special leave from the 'order of the Delhi High Court, dated March 25,1992 in C.R.P. No. 1178 of 1992).
Income-tax---
----Commissioner---Power to waive interest and penalty---Revised return-- Income voluntarily disclosed---Commissioner refusing to waive interest and penalty---High Court---Writ petition---Should be decided on merits---Indian Income-tax Act, 1961, S.273A---Constitution of India, Art. 226.
The question whether the Commissioner was justified on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, in refusing to exercise his power under section 273A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, to waive interest and penalty where the assessee has disclosed income. voluntarily in a revised return, is a question to be examined on the merits and the High Court, on a writ petition challenging such a refusal, ought not to dismiss the petition on the ground that the order was not liable to interference in exercise of its extraordinary jurisdiction.
Order of the High Court set aside and case remanded.
Miss Geetanjali Mohan for the Appellant.
K.T.S. Tulsi, Additional Solicitor-General (B.K. Prasad, Sridhar and P. Parameswaran with him), for the Respondents.
ORDER
Special leave granted.
This appeal is directed against the order dated March 25, 1992, of the High Court of Delhi in C. W. P. No. 1178 of 1992, dismissing the writ petition. filed by the appellant against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income-tax under section 273A of the Income tax Act, 1961 (for-short, "the Act"), refusing to waive interest and penalty on the amount voluntarily disclosed by the assessee by way of revised return, without entering into the merits on the ground that the order was not liable to interference in extraordinary jurisdiction.
Having heard learned counsel for both the parties, we are of the opinion that the question whether the Commissioner of Income-tax, in the facts and circumstances of the case, was justified in refusing to exercise his power under section 273A of the Act was a question which was required to be examined on the merits. Therefore, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the controversy, we set aside the order of the High Court and send the case back for decision afresh in accordance with law on the merits. The petition shall be restored to its original number. Parties shall be at liberty to exchange affidavits. The appeal is decided accordingly.
M.BA./437/T.F.Order accordingly.