Pending assessment proceedings do not justify issuance of a Look Out Circular (LOC) nor do they justify preventing an assessee from travelling overseas in exercise of well-settled fundamental rights, observed the Bombay High Court.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale, on July 19, stayed the LOC issued against Achal Ramesh Chaurasia, promoter of the ARC group, and his entire family at the instance of Deputy Director of the Income-Tax (IT) for alleged pending IT assessment. The HC was hearing a petition filed by Chaurasia challenging the LOCs.
HC permits Chaurasia to travel to Dubai
While staying the LOC till August 23, the HC has permitted Chaurasia to travel to Dubai on condition that he will give an undertaking that he will return to India and file a detailed itinerary to his travel.
Senior advocate Atul Rajadhyaksha and advocate Akhilesh Dubey, appearing for Chaurasia, said that these LOCs were without any expiry date and are said to be in force until there is a deletion request from the originator.
IT says there were no pending proceeds to trigger LOC
The bench noted, “The Income Tax says that the appraisal report and the seized material and case records have been handed over to the jurisdictional assessing officer in central charge. There were no pending proceedings with the authority which triggered the LOC. The assessing officer was informed about the position of the LOC and it is he who said that the LOC will continue till March 31, 2024, i.e, the due date for completion of assessment proceedings.”
Swapna Gokhale, advocate for the Income Tax, said that the LOC was issued since there was a period during which Chaurasia could not be contacted. Neither he answered his phone nor was he found at his office or at his residence.
However, the bench said there was no “apprehensions on that score” since Chaurasia was present before the court and agreed to give an undertaking that he will cooperate with the tax authorities and the assessing officer and will be available whenever required to answer all queries in the course of the assessment proceedings.
