ARJUN KUMAR AGRAWAL Vs. KANUNGO S C ITO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, Arjun Kumar Agrawal, and three others, partners of a partnership firm, styled Messrs. Shankar Textiles, are accused persons in 2(c). C. C. No. 71 of 1991 pending in the Court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Special Court for Economic Offences), Cuttack. On the basis of a complaint filed by the Income-tax Officer, Dhenkanal (opposite party No. 1 herein), the aforesaid case was instituted on the allegations, inter alia, that (a) the accused persons have wilfully attempted to evade payment of tax, penalty or interest chargeable or imposable under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (in short, "the Act"), by suppressing and/or concealing their assessable income, thereby rendering them liable to be prosecuted under Section 276C of the Act, and (b) the accused persons made false statements during verification by knowingly delivering statements and/or accounts which are false, thereby committing an offence under Section 277 of the Act. After appearance in court, the accused persons filed an application to defer hearing of the case till disposal of the appeal filed before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), Orissa (opposite party No. 2). THE prayer was rejected on the ground that pendency of the appeal cannot stand as a bar to the criminal court's proceeding in the matter and to launching prosecution, and there was no necessity to stay the proceeding.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the accused-petitioner has urged that the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate did not consider that the result of the appeal would have a material effect on the proceeding itself. If the appeal is decided in favour of the accused, the continuance of the criminal proceeding would result in miscarriage of justice. LEARNED counsel for the Revenue, however, submitted that prosecution can be launched notwithstanding pendency of the appeal and, in any event, there is no infirmity in the order passed by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate.