Willful concealment is not an essential ingredient for attracting civil liability and prosecution under section 276C

Last updated: 16 November 2012

Court :
Supreme Court of India

Brief :
After analysing the facts of this case, considering the submissions made by the learned Advocates for the parties and the materials placed before us, we cannot brush aside the fact that the assessee ompany is a well known and reputed Chartered Accountant firm and a tax consultant. We also do not find any substance in the submissions made by Dr. Pal; on the contrary, in our considered opinion, we find that Section 271(1)(c) of the Act has specifically stated about the concealment of the particulars of income or furnishing of inaccurate particulars of such income which has to be read “either” – “or” and on the given facts of this case would automatically come within the four corners of Section 271(1)(c) of the Act and we come to the conclusion that the appellant have ailed to discharge their strict liability to furnish their true and correct particulars of accounts while filing the return. We are also of the opinion that the penalty under that provision is a civil liability and willful concealment is not an essential ingredient for attracting civil liability as in the matter of prosecution under section 276C, as has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

Citation :
Price Waterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd. …..Appellant Versus Commissioner of Income Tax, Kolkata-I ....Respondents and Anr.