The Bombay High Court recently imposed a cost of Rs. 25,000 on industrialist Anil Ambani for seeking an urgent hearing of his petition challenging the notice issued by the Income Tax Department in April 2022.
A bench of Justices Mahesh S Sonak and Jitendra S Jain on March 27 passed an order on Ambani’s plea while noting that his lawyer Gunjan Kakkad moved praecipe or a written request for an urgent hearing to take up the matter urgently, even though the impugned notice was issued on April 12, 2022.
The bench said the facility to seek urgent circulation of the matter or hearing “cannot be invoked by creating such an artificial urgency.” “Besides, the challenge is only to show cause notice… The Petitioner has moved the Court at the fag end when the assessment is likely to be time barred by March 31, 2025. Accordingly, we dismiss this praecipe with cost of Rs.25,000/- payable to Tata Memorial Hospital,” the bench noted in its order.
The bench asked Anil Ambani to pay the amount to Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital within two weeks from the order date and said the matter will come up for hearing on the assigned date of April 1.
However, on April 1, Senior Advocate Rafique Dada, representing Ambani, informed the bench that the petitioner was willing to withdraw the plea as the I-T Department had already passed an order related to the assessment year concerned. Dada also informed the bench that Rs. 25,000 was deposited, after which the bench disposed of the plea as withdrawn.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd