M.P. Singh, J. - (1.) THE High Court has already expressed its opinion vide order dated October 15, 1994, that the action of Mr. Dilip Shivpuri, the then Deputy Director (Investigation), Income-tax Department, in conducting the search and seizure in the house of Dr. B. S. Tomar on September 17 and 18, 1992, and the FIR lodged by him against Dr. Tomar was mala fide. This view has been upheld by the Supreme Court in the special leave petition filed by the Department.
(2.) IN spite of these findings, recorded about three years back, the INcome-tax Department has not changed its attitude towards the assessee. IN all good grace, the Department should have given up the revengeful and rancorous attitude. The matter should have been dealt with, only in accordance with the law, without abuse of the official position while exercising power under the INcome-tax Act. Justice should not only be done, but it should be seen to have been done. Sometimes, it is the mala fide deeds of some individual officer, which tarnishes the image of the whole Department. Such action should be deprecated. An atmosphere should be created, where the assessee should have full confidence in getting a fair justice. The element of fairness is certainly lacking in this case, as already observed by this court on October 15; 1994. It is high time that the Department itself came forward to fix the personal accountability of the officer who acts with mala fide intention or acts to achieve some oblique motive under the guise of judicial, quasi-judicial or even administrative orders. The higher authorities of the Income-tax Department should have taken stringent action against such erring officer against whom strictures had been passed by this court. Both these appeals arise out of the remand order dated October 1, 1997 (Jayanti Lal Patel v. Asst. CIT [1998] 233 ITR 588), passed by the learned single judge. The controversy involved in them are almost common, so they are being decided by a common judgment. This case has a chequered history which has been discussed in the impugned order in great detail. We will mention only a few of them which are essential to decide the appeals.
(3.) DR. B. S. Tomar is a professor in the Medical College, Jaipur. His wife, DR. Shobha Tomar, is also in service. DR. Tomar, the assessee, has been victim of circumstances. One Dr. Shivpuri was the colleague of Dr. Tomar in the medical college. He had serious professional rivalry with Dr. Tomar. Mr. Dilip Shivpuri, the then Deputy Director (Investigation), Income-tax Department, was the cousin of Dr. Shivpuri. Dr. Tomar's case that Dr. Shivpuri is the architect of this unfortunate case, has already been found to be correct by this court on October 15, 1994. At the instance of Dr. Shivpuri, a raid was conducted on September 17/ 18, 1992, at the residence of Dr. Tomar. The search and seizure operation was conducted by a team headed by Mr. Dilip Shivpuri. In the search operation, jewellery weighing 12 tolas gold and Rs. 7,162 in cash were found. In addition to that, three FDRs, in the name of one Jayanti Lal Patel were also found. Jayanti Lal Patel is the personal friend of Dr. Tomar and is an NRI settled in London. ;