- (1.) WE have heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and Sri Shamboo Chopra for the respondent Income Tax Department.
(2.) THE petitioner is a company and Sri Som Arora and Sri Praveen Arora are its directors admittedly. A search has been conducted on the premises of the said two directors and as a result of the search, notice under Section 153-A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, has been issued to the petitioner. THE petitioner has chal lenged that notice on the ground of that search conducted on the individuals namely the two directors, does not amount to a search of the petitioner company under Section 132 read with Rule 112, and accordingly notice could not have been issued under Section 153-Atothe petitioner company. For issue of notice under section 153-A one of the two conditions given below must be satisfied,either a search should be initiated under Section 132, or 2. books of account, etc. should be requisitioned under Section 132-A. It is not the department's case that the case is covered by any requisition under Section 132-A. The question is whether the search conducted on the premises of these two directors should be treated to be a search initiated in respect of the petitioner company.
(3.) THE crucial words in Section 153a are "in the case of a person where a search is initiated under Section 132. " Much emphasis has been laid on the definition of "person" given in Section 2 (31) of the Act.;