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ORDER Tarun Agarwala, J. - The petitioner has filed the present writ petition for the quashing of the notice dated 23rd January, 2001 issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The petitioner is a public limited company carrying on the business of publishing a Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran from various places. For the assessment year 1997-98, the return of income was initially processed under Section 143(1)(a) of the Act. Subsequently, the return was picked up for scrutiny and notices under Section 143(2) and 142(1) of the Act along with a detailed questionnaire covering various issues was served upon the assessee. Once such query based in the questionnaire was with regard to the justification of the valuation of the purchase consideration on copyright under the copyright purchase agreement dated 25th January, 1997 where the petitioner company had acquired the copyright of the hindi newspaper "Dainik Jagran" from the owner of the copyright, namely, the firm Jagran Publication. 2. In response to the query raised by the Assessing Officer in proceedings under Section 143(3) of the Act, the petitioner filed a detailed reply dated 7th January, 1998 justifying the valuation of the purchase of the copyright at Rs.17 crores. The petitioner contended that at the time of planning of public issue of equity shares at a premium during 1995, the Merchant Bankers including the lead issue Managers were of the firm opinion that the ownership of copyright was an essential prerequisite for a successful public issue of equity shares on a premium. The petitioner contended that mentioning of non-ownership of copyright of publishing Dainik Jagran was a risk factor which could dissuade the investors from subscribing to the proposed public issue of equity shares at a premium. It was also pointed out by the petitioner that the intrinsic worth of the said copyright and the valuation thereof may also be gathered from the fact that interest free security deposit to the owners of the copyright had been increased to Rs.15 crores as early as on 30.1.1995. 3. The petitioner in its reply dated 7.1.1998 further gave its justification for the…

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