The Rajasthan High Court in an appeal held that the term “RESIDENT” in the Income Tax Act is simply designed for the purpose of including the persons who are in India for a period of 180 days to bring in the tax net and not for the purpose of determining the citizenship or for deciding the permanent resident status of such person.
The petitioner asserted before the learned Single Bench that the respondent No.4 was, as a matter of fact, a Non Resident Indian and hence, he was clearly in violation of the
qualification as laid down in point No.2(b) of ‘Common Eligibility Criteria for all Categories’ in the notice for appointment of LPG distributors dated 13.10.2010 which stipulates that an
eligible candidate must be a resident of India.
The Learned Single Bench held that the complaint which was made by the petitioner against the declaration of result after seven months of the issuance of the declaration of result
through LOI dated 22.01.2011 and thus, the same was time barred.
Learned counsel urged that as it is a case of fraud, the limitation of 30 days for filing the complaint would not preclude the appellant from filing the appeal beyond the period of thirty
days because the case would be covered under clause 23 of the guidelines and as the information furnished by the applicant was false, the allotment can be cancelled at any point
of time.
The High Court noted that there is no such assertion that the respondent, made any false declaration at the time of applying for the gas dealership in question. The petitioner has tried to harp upon the definitions of ‘Indian Resident’ as provided under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Income Tax Act, 1961 for claiming that the respondent was not a resident of India.
The Court dismissing the appeal held that, “We are prima facie of the view that there is no reason to accept the assertion of the appellant that the respondent was not a resident of India by applying the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Income Tax Act, 1961 because, both the acts have a different object and purposes. The condition imposed by the Income Tax Act that a person residing in India for a continuous period of 180 days would be considered to be a resident of India, is for the purpose of bringing such person in the purview of the Income Tax Act. The definition is simply designed for the purpose of including the persons who are in India for a period of 180 days to bring in the tax net and not for the purpose of determining the citizenship or for deciding the permanent resident status of such person.”
CASE: Smt Kamla W/o Hanuman Ram Chodhary, Versus Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Through Its Managing Director AND Ors.
CITATION: D.B. Spl. Appl. Writ No. 418/2022
BENCH: Justice Sandeep Mehta, Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani
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