AMUDHA T Vs. MEMBERS APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners challenge the order of the appropriate authority rejecting an application of the vendors of the petitioners filed under section 269UC of the Income-tax Act, 1961, on the ground that the statement filed by the vendors of the petitioners was premature, invalid and not actionable for certain reasons.

(2.) NOTICE of motion has been ordered by me on October 23, 1991. The petitioners entered into an agreement of sale on August 9, 1989, with one Nagarathina Mudaliar and respondents Nos. 4, 5 and 6 for purchase of the property situate at No. 21, Haddows Road, Nungambakkam, Madras 34, for a total consideration of Rs. 1,55,43,000. This property was acquired by the said Nagarathina Mudaliar and others, it is said, in a partition of a joint family property in 1954. Since the value of the property exceeded a sum of rupees ten lakhs, the vendors and the petitioners filed before the first respondent Form No. 37-I under Chapter XX-C of the Income-tax Act, under section 269UC. The statement was filed on August 23, 1989. By a letter dated October 17, 1989, which is impugned before me, the appropriate authority rejected the statement and directed the vendors and the petitioners to file a fresh agreement and statement under Form No. 27-I after setting right certain irregularities and infirmities discussed in the order. It is also stated by the appropriate authority that the statement filed on August 23, 1989, is non est in law.

(3.) CONSIDERING the arguments of Mr. V. Ramachandran, learned counsel for the petitioners, and Mr. Balasubramanian, learned counsel for the Department, the question before me is whether the writ petition filed by the purchasers is maintainable and the issue raised in this case is what is the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Department under Chapter XX-C of the Income-tax Act. It has been decided against the Department by Kannakraj J. in Writ Petition No. 16225 of 1990 (Naresh M. Mehta v. Appropriate Authority [1991] 188 ITR 585 (Mad)) by his order dated January 10, 1991, which has been confirmed by a Division Bench of this court in Writ Appeal No. 128 of 1991, dated December 19, 1991, reported in [1993] 200 ITR 773; [1992] 1 MTCR 142. This court has taken the very same view in Writ Petition No. 17958 of 1990, dated August 2, 1991, reported in Mount Plaza Builders Pvt. Ltd. v. Appropriate Authority [1992] 195 ITR 750; [1992] 1 MTCR 1.