The Supreme Court said that there is no reason to insist that the case should be transferred to the Supreme Court on the pretext that the similar matters are pending before different High Courts .
A bench comprising of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan pointed out that this may have an ill effect as the transferred proceedings would be seen as final and it will take of the right to appeal from the party.
The bench explained that when the matters are pending before different High Courts, there may be differences of opinion but that does not serve a reason enough to transfer cases pending before different High Courts to this top Court .
The Court added that doing so will be counred as final proceeding, thereby depriving the unsuccessful party of a right of appeal.
The Apex court said this while it was hearing the Central government’s appeals against orders passed by the Gauhati and Bombay High Courts in cases concerning reassessment notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act.
The High Courts had issued orders directing no coercive action against the assessees.
The assesses had contended that such reassessment notices were barred by limitation. The Union government, meanwhile, asserted that the limitation period applicable is ten years for such matters, as per Section 149 of the Income Tax Act.
In its October 19 order, the Supreme Court took a prima facie view that there was no need to transfer the matter to itself.
The Court said that Prima facie, we are of the view that when the matter is pending before the High Court, there is no justification for seeking transfer of the petition from the High Court to the Supreme Court,” the Court said.
Since there was another similar transfer plea already pending, the Court tagged both transfer pleas together and posted the matter for further hearing on October 13, although it also opined “we do not think that the matter would require any further consideration.”
Additional Solicitor General N Venkatraman with advocates Raj Bahadur Yadav, Sreekumar CN, VC Bharathi, Praveena Gautam, and Shashank Bajpai appeared for the Union government.