- (1.) We have heard Sri S.D.Singh, the learned Senior Counsel along with Sri Rahul Agarwal for the petitioners and Sri Ashok Kumar, the learned counsel for the Income Tax Department.
(2.) A search and seizure operation was carried out on 12.11.2013 at the business premises of the petitioners at various places. Petitioner nos. 1 to 4 are located in Delhi and petitioner nos. 5 to 7 are located in Bulandshahar in the State of Uttar Pradesh. The jurisdictional assessing officer of petitioner nos. 1 to 4 is the Income Tax Officer, Delhi and assessing officer of petitioner nos. 5 to 7 is the Income Tax Officer, Bulandshahar.
(3.) It transpires that the Commissioner of Income Tax (Central) Kanpur submitted a proposal for centralization of cases preferably at Agra, based on which a show cause notice was issued by the Commissioner of Income Tax,Delhi to the petitioner nos. 1 to 5 dated 30.12.2014 directing the petitioners to show cause as to why their cases should not be centralized at Agra. Similar notice was also sent by the Commissioner of Income Tax,Ghaziabad to petitioner nos. 6 and 7. The petitioners submitted a reply belatedly on 19.01.2015. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi thereafter passed the order under Section 127 of the Income Tax Act transferring the case of petitioner nos. 1 to 5 to the DCIT/ACIT Central Circle, Agra. Similarly, the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Ghaziabad also passed an order dated 13.02.2015 transferring the case to the concerned officer at Agra with regard to the assessment of the petitioner nos. 6 and 7.;