No Recovery During Pendency of Stay Petition
IN a recent judgement in UTI Mutual Fund vs Income Tax Officer (), the Bombay High Court quoted the Kerala High Court; “In exercising his power, the Income-tax Officer should not act as a mere tax gatherer but as a quasi judicial authority vested with the power of mitigating hardships to the assessee.”
And directed that
No recovery of tax should be made pending
(a) Expiry of the time limit for filing an appeal;
(b) Disposal of a stay application, if any, moved by the assesse and for a reasonable period thereafter to enable the assessee to move a higher forum, if so advised. Coercive steps may, however, be adopted where the authority has reason to believe that the assessee may defeat the demand, in which case brief reasons may be indicated.