Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on industrialist Anil Ambani for seeking urgent hearing of his petition challenging a notice issued to him in April 2022 by the Income Tax department.
A division bench of Justices MS Sonak and Jitendra Jain, on March 27, remarked that the facility to seek urgent hearing cannot be invoked by creating such artificial urgency. It added that the challenge was only to a show cause notice.
“This facility for urgent circulation cannot be invoked by creating such artificial urgency. Besides, the challenge is only to a show cause notice. The petitioner has moved the Court at the fag end, when the assessment is likely to be time-barred by 31 March 2025,” the bench remarked.
The bench rejected Ambani’s application seeking urgent hearing of the petition and imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 that would have to be paid to the Tata Memorial hospital within two weeks.
On Tuesday, when the petition came up for hearing in the regular course Ambani’s counsel Rafiq Dada told the bench that on March 27, the tax department passed its order for the concerned assessment year. Hence he sought to withdraw the petition.
He informed the bench that the cost imposed by the bench earlier was deposited. The bench, on Tuesday, accepted the statement and disposed of the plea as withdrawn.
