Legal News & Views

In CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS.917944 OF 2019, Surinder Singh Deswal @ Col. S.S.Deswalb vs Virender Gandhi, an appeal was filed against a First Appellate Court order that had directed the appellants-convicts to deposit 25% of the amount of fine/compensation ordered by the Trial Court. (This First Appellate court order was later affirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court). Section 148 of the NI Act, introduced vide an amendment in 2018, empowers the Appellate Court to direct the accused/appellant to 'deposit' minimum of 20% of 'fine' or 'compensation' awarded by the Trial Court. The appellants argued that in the present case as the criminal proceedings were initiated and the complaints were filed against the accused for the offence under Section 138 of the N.I. Act, prior to the amendment Act came into force, Section 148 of the N.I.Act, as amended shall not be applicable. The Supreme Court disagreeing with the appellants held that considering the Statemen...

In Crl.MC.No. 3289 of 2015, B.SURENDRA DAS vs STATE OF KERALA, the court was considering a petition seeking to quash the criminal proceedings on the ground that no demand for payment of the amount of the cheque was made by the complainant as per the notice sent by him and therefore, the notice is defective and the proceedings initiated against the accused pursuant to such notice cannot be sustained. The court observed that there is no statutory requirement that the complainant must specifically allege in the complaint that there was a subsisting liability. All the complainant has to do is to raise a demand for payment which is a notice to the debtor giving him time to pay but there is no format in which the notice is to be sent.

In CIVIL APPEAL NO.4103 OF 2008, HEMAREDDI vs RAMACHANDRA YALLAPPA HOSMANI, an appeal was brought before the Supreme Court out of a suit which was instituted by two brothers jointly for declaration that the adoption of the first defendant was invalid and therefore he had no right in the joint properties of the plaintiffs. The trial court dismissed the Courts will not proceed with an appeal: (a) when the success of the appeal may lead to the Court's coming to a decision which be in conflict with the decision between the appellant and the deceased respondent and therefore which would lead to the Court's passing a decree which will be contradictory to the decree which had become final with respect to the same subject suit. The matter was taken in appeal to the High Court. During the pendency of appeal, one of the brothers died. But no steps were taken to bring on record the legal representatives of the deceased brother. The appeal was continued by the surviving brother. The High ...

In ITA No.7792/Del/2018, Sonia Malik vs Vs. JCIT, the assessee is an individual deriving income from salary and other sources. The Assessing Officer completed the assessment determining the total income at Rs.34,12,062/- wherein he disallowed an apart of the long-term capital gain claimed by the assessee u/s 54F of the Income Tax Act apart from making the addition of Rs.57,538/- on account of interest and Rs.8,160/- under the head ‘Salary.’ The officer further levied penalty under section 271D on the ground that the assessee had taken cash loan of Rs.1,25,000/- from Shri Darshan Singh Gujral, Rs.1,00,000/- from Smt. Joginder Kaur and Rs1 lakh from Shri Gurdeep Singh Gujral and, therefore, she has violated the provisions of section 269SS. The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal noticed the decision of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in the case of CIT vs. Sunil Kumar Goel wherein it was held that ‘a family transaction, between two independent assessees, based on an...

In ITA No.64/Bang/2019, Assessment Year : 2009-10, Smt. Tupel Raja Iyengar Shakuntala vs ITO, Bangalore, the assessee sold a residential property but had not filed a return of income for the relevant assessment year. The Assessing Officer, on receipt of information, re-opened the assessment by holding that the assessee escaped income exigible to tax, by way of the above transaction of sale of the property. The Tribunal noted that the assessee had filed the computation of capital gains before the CIT(A). As per this computation, it is seen that the assessee had computed the long-term capital gains (LTCC) at Rs.19,54,873/- on the sale proceeds of the said property at Rs.46,65,000/-, after claiming the indexed cost of acquisition. It is also seen that the assessee had purchased a residential property for a consideration of Rs.37,50,830/- on 22.05.2008, i.e., within 7 days from the sale of original property on 16.05.2008.The Tribunal found that the AO, after examination of details/docume...

In CIT Vs M/s. Sungard Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd before the Bombay High Court, the dispute was that on 8.9.2015, an order was passed under Section 127 of the Act transferring the respondent assessee's case from an Assessing Officer at Banglore to an Assessing Officer at Pune. Thereafter an appeal was filed by the Revenue before the Bombay High Court against the said order. The respondents however objected that the impugned order dated has been passed by the Bangalore Bench of the Tribunal. Thus, the appeal from the order of Bangalore Bench of the Tribunal would lie before the Karnataka High Court and  not before this Court. In support of his submission, he placed reliance upon Chapter XX of the Act and, in particular Section 260A and 269 of the Act. Incidentally, the contention of the applicant was supported by judgements of Delhi High Court in  CIT Vs. Sahara India Financial Corp. Ltd.1 and CIT Vs. AAR Bee Industries while the respondents cited decisions of the Punjab & Ha...

In CIVIL APPEAL NO.1676 OF 2019, ANJUM HUSSAIN vs INTELLICITY BUSINESS PARK PVT. LTD, complaint was filed by the appellant along with 43 others before the NCDRC due to non-delivery of office space by the respondent. The application was rejected by NCDRC with the observation that the complaint has been instituted for the benefit of entire class of buyers, who have booked shops/offices in a project namely “Intellicity” consisting of residential units, shops and offices at Greater Noida. The scope of this complaint is not restricted only to the complainants. It is alleged that the complainants are consumers as they had booked small shops/offices for the purpose of earing their livelihood by means of self-employment. Since the scope of the complaint is not restrict only to the complainants and encompasses all the allottees of the shops/commercial units, it would be maintainable as a class action only if it is alleged and shown that all the allottees of the shops/commercial u...