Sanjay Jhunjhunwala v. Union Of India And ORS.

$~ * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI + W.P. (C) 3271/2020 SANJAY JHUNJHUNWALA .....Petitioner Through: Mr. Abhimanyu Bhandari, Advocate with Ms. Roohina Dua and Mr. Cheitanya Madan, Advocates.

versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

.....Respondents Through: Mr. Asheesh Jain, CGSC with Mr. Adarsh Kr. Gupta, Advocate for respondent No.1.

Mr. Zoheb Hossain, Sr. Standing counsel with Mr. Parth Semwal, Advocate for Income Tax.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANMOHAN HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV NARULA

O R D E R

% 29.05.2020 CM Appls.11473-11474/2020 (exemption) Allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

W.P. (C) 3271/2020 The writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution has been listed before this Bench by the Registry in view of the urgency expressed therein.

The matter has been heard by way of video conferencing.

Present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner seeking a direction to respondents to disregard/exclude the days spent by the petitioner in India since 15th July, 2016 for the purposes of ascertaining the tax residency status under Section 6(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and for allowing the petitioner to file his income tax returns for the Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20 as an NRI.

Learned counsel for the petitioner states that the petitioner has been forced to stay in India due to confiscation of his passport initially by the CBI and later on due to its deposit with the trial court. He points out that the passport of the petitioner is still lying deposited with the trial court. In the opinion of this Court, the issue whether the petitioner's presence in India was with his consent or against his Will is a question of fact which will have to be decided by the assessing officer. Consequently, the present writ petition is disposed of with liberty to the parties to raise all their pleas before the statutory authority, who needless to say, shall decide the same in accordance with law. The order be uploaded on the website forthwith. Copy of the order be also forwarded to the learned counsel through e-mail. MANMOHAN, J SANJEEV NARULA, J MAY 29, 2020 js