The Commissioner Of Income Tax ... vs Capital Power Systems Limited
2009 Latest Caselaw 128 Del

           THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

%                                  Judgment delivered on: 16.01.2009

+            ITA 1115/2008

THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME
TAX DELHI(CENTRAL) -II                                     ... Appellant

                                  - versus -

CAPITAL POWER SYSTEMS LIMITED                              ... Respondent

Advocates who appeared in this case:

For the Appellant     : Mr R. D. Jolly
For the Respondent    : Dr Rakesh Gupta with Ms Poonam Ahuja and Ms Aarti Saini

CORAM:-
HON'BLE MR JUSTICE BADAR DURREZ AHMED
HON'BLE MR JUSTICE RAJIV SHAKDHER

1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ?

2. To be referred to the Reporter or not ?

3. Whether the judgment should be reported in Digest ?

BADAR DURREZ AHMED, J

1. The only issue sought to be raised in the present appeal is

whether the Joint Director of Income-tax (Investigation), Unit-VII,

New Delhi was empowered to issue the warrant of authorization for

search and seizure operations under Section 132(1) of the Income-tax

Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the said Act'). In a separate

decision delivered by us today itself in the case of CIT v. Pawan

Kumar Garg [ITA 881/2008], we held that there is no notification

issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes specifically empowering

any Joint Director of Income-tax (Investigation) to authorize action

under Section 132(1) of the said Act. We also held that the notification

issued on 11.10.1990 by the Central Board of Direct Taxes

empowering certain specified Deputy Directors of Income-tax

(Investigation) and Deputy Commissioners would not, by virtue of the

mere re-designation of Deputy Directors of Income-tax as Joint

Directors of Income-tax, as per notification dated 23.10.1998 issued by

the Central Government under Section 117(1) of the said Act, by itself

mean that a Joint Director of Income-tax is also empowered to

authorize action under Section 132(1) of the said Act. A specific

notification under Section 132(1) of the said Act would necessarily

have to be issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes if it wishes to

empower any Joint Director to authorize action to be taken under

Section 132(1) of the said Act. In the absence of any such specific

empowerment by the board, we held that the Joint Director is not

empowered to issue any authorisation. Consequently, following the

said decision in CIT v. Pawan Kumar Garg [ITA 881/2008], the

present appeal is liable to be dismissed.

It is ordered accordingly. There shall be no order as to costs.

                                    BADAR DURREZ AHMED, J



January 16, 2009                        RAJIV SHAKDHER, J
SR/dutt