Law:

Section:

Section 132B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Search and seizure - Retained assets, application of - Whether silver bars cannot be described as money for purpose of section 132B(4) and so no interest is payable on silver bars seized under section 132 - Held, yes FACTS The Director of Inspection (Investigation) conducted a search and seizure operation in the residential as well as business premises of the assessee-firm and one of its partners. The search and seizure operation was conducted in Delhi, Hathras and Bombay. As a result of such operation, 114 silver bars lying deposited with the two banks in Delhi were seized by the department along with books of account and other documents. The assessment proceedings were initiated and eventually the tax liability of the assessee was assessed at Rs. 2,067 by an assessment order dated 31-5-1979. Under these circumstances, the silver bars which were seized being the subject-matter of an order under section 132(5) were required to be released to the assessee. Over a period of time, from 10-9-1974 onwards till 25-8-1984, the silver bars were released to the assessee. For the first time on 8-10-1990, the assessee made a representation to the Commissioner at Bombay asking for payment of interest on the seized assets. By a letter dated 28-2-1992, the assessee was informed that no interest could be paid on the seized assets since they were not in cash and, therefore, the provisions of section 132B would not be applicable. On writ : HELD Among the assets that can be seized under section 132 are money, bullion, jewellery or any other valuable article or thing. Silver bars cannot by any stretch of imagination be described as money. Section 132B(4)(a ) refers to payment of simple interest on the aggregate amount of money seized under section 132. In other words, where money is seized by the department, it would be obliged to pay interest thereon if the conditions of section 132B are fulfilled but this provision is clearly inapplicable to bullion or jewellery that is so seized. [Para 14] Thus the assessee was not entitled to interest under section 132B on seizure of silver bars. CASES REFERRED TO Dimondstar Exports Ltd. v. Director…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492