In a recent case, the Kerala High Court made it clear that it prefers not to engage in parallel jurisdiction with the appellate authority to grant the interim order requested by the petitioner’s counsel. Nevertheless, the High Court instructed the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (DCIT) to accelerate the processing of the petitioner’s stay petition challenging the assessment order, with a deadline of two months.
The writ petition was filed by the Petitioner Thuruthipuram Service Co-operative Bank Ltd inter alia seeking a relief in the nature of writ/direction to the DCIT (3rd respondent) to decide appeal and stay petition filed against the assessment order for the assessment year 2020-21, expeditiously.
The petitioner filed its 2020-21 income tax return on 6.1.2021, and it underwent comprehensive scrutiny under CASS to verify claims in Schedule BP, high creditors/liabilities, and Section 80P deductions.
Following a notice under Section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on 29.6.2021, subsequent notices under Section 142(1) dated 3.12.2021 and 7.2.2022 were issued. The assessing authority rejected the petitioner’s interest deduction claim, assessing interest income at Rs.18,17,072/- under Sections 143(3) and 144B, with penalty proceedings initiated under Section 270A.
The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar stated that “This Court would not like to exercise parallel jurisdiction with the appellate authority for granting an interim order as prayed for by the learned counsel for the petitioner.”
Further stated that “the present writ petition is disposed of with direction to the 3rd respondent to consider and pass appropriate orders, in accordance with law, on the stay petition, Ext.P3, expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months.”
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