HC Allows Assessee to Operate Its Bank a/c Attached by Tax Authorities to Make Pre-deposit for Filing Appeal

Case Details: Bytedance (India) Technology (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India - [2024] 160 taxmann.com 714 (Bombay)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• G.S. Kulkarni & Firdosh P. Pooniwalla, JJ.
• Sriram Sridharan, Ms Nidhi Doshi & Sahnmuha Dav for the Petitioner.
• J.B. Mishra & Satyaprakash Sharma for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The petitioner was a company and the department had attached its bank account. It filed writ petition against the provisional attachment and the Court directed the department to adjudicate the show cause notice. Thereafter, the designated officer passed Order-in-Original and now the petitioner was required to file appeal against the order. It filed writ petition seeking permission to operate it for purpose of making pre-deposit of 10% of disputed tax amount for filing appeal against adjudication order.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court noted that the amount to be utilized by assessee for making pre-deposit would not fall under description of amount being used for any private purpose but to deposit same with Government for maintaining appeal. Therefore, it was held that the assessee would be permitted to operate bank account to withdraw amount to be deposited for purpose of filing appeal and also permitted to avail of facility of electronics (NEFT/RTGS) transfer for making such deposit.

List of Cases Referred to

• ByteDance (India) Technology (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India [2023] 157 taxmann.com 655/ 13 Centax 311 (Bom.) (para 2).