PRADEEP KANT,J. - (1.) THIS is a bunch of writ petitions, which challenge the notice under Section 158BC of the IT Act, 1961, issued to all the petitioners separately and thus challenge the proceedings for block assessment initiated under Chapter XIV -B of the IT Act, for the block period commencing from 1st April, 1996, to 16th Dec, 2002. Since all the writ petitions arise out of almost similar facts and involve the same questions of law, we have proceeded to decide them by a common order but in doing so, keeping in mind the distinct circumstances, which require separate adjudication, we divide the aforesaid petitions in two sets. Writ Petn. Nos. 5731 (MB) of 2004, 5730 (MB) of 2004 and 5729 (MB) of 2004, Writ Petn. No. 5931 (MB) of 2004 and Writ Petn. No. 5932 (MB) of 2004, which have been filed, respectively, by (i) Raghuraj Pratap Singh, son of Udai Pratap Singh, (ii) Smt. Bhavni. Kumari, wife of Raghuraj Pratap Singh, (iii) Smt. Manjul Raje, wife of Udai Pratap Singh, (iv) Trilochan Pratap Singh Bagh Evam Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti, U.P., Bhadri District, Pratapgarh through its Mukhya Sanrakchhak Udai Pratap Singh, and (v) Shri Laxmi Narain Mandir Trust, Bhadri through its president and trustee Udai Pratap Singh, would be referred to as the 'first set' of writ petitions and the remaining writ petitions, namely, Writ Petn. Nos. 5005 (MB) of 2004, 5015 (MB) of 2004 and 5017 (MB) of 2004, which have been filed, respectively, by (i) Rani Girja Devi Balika Inter College, Kunda, Pratapgarh, through its manager Raghuraj Pratap Singh, (ii) Bajrang Degree College, Kunda, Pratapgarh through its manager Dinesh Priyadarshi, son of Kunwar Avdesh Singh, and (iii) Trilochan Prasad Intermediate College, Kunda, Pratapgarh, through its manager Raghuraj Pratap Singh, would be referred to as 'the second set' of writ petitions.
(2.) IN the first set of writ petitions, Writ Petn. No. 5731 (MB) of 2004 has been argued as the leading writ petition whereas in the second set of writ petitions. Writ Petn. No. 5005 (MB) of 2004 was taken as the leading writ petition. The petitioners, while challenging the block assessment proceedings, have questioned the very authority of the Department to initiate and proceed under the aforesaid Chapter XIV -B, mainly on the following grounds: (i) the search in question cannot be said to be a valid search under Section 132 of the Act without service of warrant of authorization on the person alleged to have been searched, namely, the petitioners and in the absence of any search on the petitioners, no action could be taken under Section 158BC. (ii) a common warrant of authorization could not have been issued under Section 132 naming more than one person; (iii) the books of account of the bank could not be treated to be the books of account/documents of the person other than the bank and also the money deposited in the banks could not be said to be the money in possession of the person named in Clause (c) of Sub -section (1) of Section 132 of the Act; (iv) the warrant of authorization said to have been issued under Section 132(1) of the Act and served on the bank calling upon the bank to furnish information will not constitute a legal search under the aforesaid section; (v) the powers of calling information can be referable only to Sections 131 and 133(6) or to Section 132 of the Act also; (vi) the requisition under Section 132A of the seized documents, books of account, assets, etc., could not be made against a person who was neither in possession of the said documents, books of account, assets, etc., as the same was not taken from the custody of the petitioners. (vii) no requisition under Section 132A could be made from the police without obtaining permission from the appropriate Court.
(3.) IN the second set of writ petitions, an additional point, which has been raised, is as under, regarding which we will consider when we address ourselves to the second set of writ petitions: (i) the warrant of authorization could not have been issued by the Addl. Director of IT (Inv.), he not being the authority under the Act to issue any such authorization.;