INCOME TAX OFFICER & ANOTHER Vs. SUDESH SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As identical questions of law and facts are involved, therefore, I propose to dispose of the indicated petitions for leave to appeal, arising out of the similar impugned judgments of acquittal of the same date between the same parties, vide this common order to avoid the repetition. However, the conspectus of the facts, which needs a necessary mention for deciding the core controversy, involved in the present petitions, has been extracted from Another Vs. Sudesh Sharma" for ready reference in this context.

(2.) The matrix of the facts and evidence unfolded during the course of trial, culminating in the commencement, relevant for deciding the instant petitions for leave to appeal and emanating from the record is that initially, main assessee Ashok Kumar Sharma s/o Bhagwan Dass, Railway contractor (for brevity "the main assessee") had engaged Sudesh Sharma, Advocate respondent-accused and supplied him the requisite documents and TDS certificates for the purpose of furnishing his income tax return for the assessment year 1987-88. Consequently, the respondent had filled the income tax return on behalf of main assessee and claimed a refund of Rs.3395/- on the basis of TDS certificates purported to have been issued by the Senior Divisional Accounts Officer, Northern Railway, New Delhi. The complainant -Income Tax Officer (for short "ITO") claimed that in the wake of verification, the TDS certificates were found not to be genuine and the refund was wrongly claimed by the main assessee.

(3.) Leveling a variety of allegations and narrating the sequence of events in detail, in all, according to the complainant, the main assessee has wrongly claimed the refund of Rs.3395/- on the basis of wrong TDS certificates submitted in his income tax return, through respondent-accused Sudesh Kumar, Advocate. In the background of these allegations, the complainant ITO had instituted different complaints, not against the main assessee, but against Sudesh Sharma, Advocate in the manner depicted herein-above. Similar complaints were also filed by complainant-ITO against the respondent-accused with respect to main assessees in other connected matters.