Age is not a Bar for Prosecution of Non-furnishing of actual income: Delhi HC dismisses plea for quashing Proceedings [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a plea for quashing criminal proceedings against the petitioner, Rajinder Singh filed on ground of his age and on the basis of Circular/Instruction No. 5051 dated 07.02.1991.

A Complaint Case was filed by the Income Tax Officer alleging opening of an undisclosed account in HSBC Bank, London on 20.08.19 by the petitioner and having the maximum credit balance USD 575,010, equivalent to Rs.2,53,00,440/- at the exchange rate of Rs.44 per USD for the Assessment Year 2006-07.

A search and seizure was followed and the petitioner was served with Notice under Section 274(d) of the Income Tax Act and also a penalty of Rs.10,000/- under Section 271(1) (b) of the Income Tax Act was levied upon him.

In the present petition, the grounds urged by the petitioner, who claims to an Architect by profession and 80 years of age, are that detailed response to the Show Cause Notices issued by the department were sent and the beneficial circulars were also brought to their knowledge, in particular Instruction No. 5051 dated 07.02.1991. The Commissioner of Income Tax denied this and initiated proceedings against the petitioner.

Mohit Mathur, counsel for petitioner submitted that in order to buy peace in his old age, petitioner had already paid all the taxes and interest on the assessment year 2006-07 on the basis of documents provided to him during search and proceedings

The respondents took a stand that despite payments of taxes, petitioner will not be absolved of the offences committed by him.

Senior Standing Counsel Abhishek Maratha appearing on behalf of respondents submitted that on information received from Government of France in the year 2011 under Double Tax Avoidance Convention with India, it came to notice that petitioner had opened an account in HSBC.

“Guidelines for Identifying and Examining Prosecution cases‟ vide F No.285/08/2014-IT (Inv.V)/155 dated 27.06.2019 issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), “a case of individual shall not ordinarily be considered for initiating prosecution for any offence, if the individual concerned as attained the age of 70 years at the time of commission of the offence. However, if such individual has placed active role in commission of offence, this clause shall not apply.”, the Circular placed on record by the assessee-appellant said.

The contention of the department that the petitioner cannot be permitted to take benefit of his age to evade tax by having a huge sum in an undisclosed foreign account was affirmatively agreed to by the Single Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and the petition was dismissed.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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