HC dismisses HP CM's petition challenging reopening his I-T

Himachal Pradesh High Court today dismissed the petition of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, challenging the orders of Deputy Commissioner (Income Tax) to reopen the I-T returns filed by him for fiscal 2012-13.
Dismissing the petition, a division bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Vivek Singh Thakur said, "Perusal of material placed did not reflect the impugned action to be ex-facie illegal or not borne out from the record."
The bench said, "This court is not required to go into the sufficiency of material for formation of reasons of belief, particularly when the reasons are relevant and emanate from the record and also germane for just adjudication of facts."

"The procedure has been complied with and the assessee can represent before the authority which has jurisdiction to initiate the impugned action," it said.
In the petition, Virbhadra Singh had said the Deputy Commissioner I-T had passed the order to reassess the return of assessment year 2012-13 on March 29 this year and the petitioner has filed objections which were also rejected by the authority on November 24.