Apprehension of Recovery of Amounts Confirmed by Assessment Orders before Considering Stay Petition: Kerala HC stays Recovery Proceedings [Read Order]

The Kerala High Court stayed recovery proceedings on the apprehension of recovery of amounts confirmed by the assessment orders before considering stay petition.

The appellant had impugned the assessment orders before the Court in the Writ Petition when confronted with recovery steps for recovery of the amounts confirmed against him by the assessment orders. It was the case of the appellant that against the assessment orders he has preferred the appeals and the stay petitions for the assessment years 2015-2016 to 2018-2019 under the Income Tax Act.

The apprehension of the appellant was that even before consideration of the stay petitions there would be recovery steps initiated by the respondents for recovery of the amounts confirmed against the appellant by the assessment orders.

The Single Judge who considered the matter directed the respondents to consider and pass orders on the stay petitions if it was not possible to finally hear the appeals expeditiously. The Single Judge, however, did not grant a stay of recovery proceedings pending disposal of the stay petitions by the respondents. It was for this limited relief that the appellant is before us through the present appeal.

A Division Bench of Dr Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Dr Justice Kauser Edappagath observed that “In our view, since the ingle Judge had relegated the appellant to the alternate remedy before the statutory authority it was incumbent upon the Judge to protect the appellant from recovery proceedings pending disposal of the petitions by the respondent appellate authority. Accordingly, we modify the impugned judgment of the Single Judge to the limited extent of clarifying that pending disposal of the stay petitions or appeals whichever is earlier by the appellate authority, the recovery proceedings against the appellant for recovery of the amounts confirmed against him by the assessment orders shall be kept in abeyance.”

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