The Delhi High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by a husband seeking an inquiry by the Income Tax Department into an alleged ₹2 crore cash transaction and other financial dealings by his estranged wife’s family.
The petitioner Ateesh Agarwal approached the Delhi High Court under Article 226, seeking a direction to the Income Tax Department to investigate the financial transactions of his wife’s family members including illegal cash transactions of ₹2 Crores among other crores spent in the Petitioner’s wedding with the Respondent No.3 while calling on the department to verify and take action against their Income Tax Returns and financial records over the preceding 10 years.
The facts follow the Petitioner’s wedding with the Respondent No.3 in a simple function in Delhi following which the wife deserted the petitioner and later filed police complaints alleging that the Petitioner had been paid ₹2 Crores as wedding dowry among other crores spent for the wedding.
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Shobha Gupta, Sanskriti Shakuntala Gupta, Akshita Mishra, Simranjeet Kaur and Shivika Chaddha appearing for the Petitioner put forth a case that the subject transactions violated Section 269ST of the Income Tax Act, 1961 which restricts high-value cash dealings to curb black money and tax evasion.
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The Petitioner further argued that the income tax authorities were duty-bound to scrutinize the financial records of his wife’s family and verify whether they had reported the amounts in their income tax returns for the relevant assessment years.
The Respondents marked appearance through Avshreya Pratap Singh Rudy, Indruj Singh Rai, Sanjeev Menon, Rahul Singh, Anmol Jagga, Gaurav Kumar and. Varsha Sharma.
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The Division Bench constituted by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that there has been apparent infraction or violation to any of the fundamental or statutory rights of the Petitioner against the issues raised by them.
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While dismissing the Petition, the Delhi High Court commented that the petition has been lodged in terms of a matrimonial feud between the Petitioner and his wife (Respondent No.3) and concerns issued outside the jurisdiction of the Income Tax Department, the same not being under statutory scheme or a regulatory mechanism available under the Income Tax Act, 1961, thus the question of non-response to such complaint constituting violation of fundamental right or even a civil or statutory right of the petitioner is non-existent.
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