New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Friday sought response of the Income Tax Department on a plea by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenging the decision to transfer their IT assessments from one circle to another.

The plea came up before Justice Manmohan and Navin Chawla which has listed it for further hearing on July 29.

In the petition, AAP has challenged “the illegal, arbitrary, unreasoned and discriminatory action of the respondent no.1 (Commissioner of Income Tax, Exemption) in transferring the case of the petitioner from the respondent no. 2 (Deputy Commission of income tax--Exemption) to respondent no. 3 (Deputy Commissioner of income tax -- Central circle) in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 127of the Income Tax.”

The plea said the party's case has been transferred from Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) to Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Central circle and alleged that order is passed in complete violation of various statutory provisions, notification and circulars and it was without jurisdiction.

The plea, filed through advocate Vivek Jain, has sought an appropriate direction for quashing the February 22 order to transfer the jurisdiction of the petitioner's case from one department to another.

The political party said the order provides only a pretence of reason for such transfer which is for the purposes of “coordinated investigation” and “meaningful assessment”.

“The arbitrariness of such transfer is writ large from the fact that there is no ‘investigation' or any ‘assessment' is pending against the petitioner.

“Mere mentioning of a reason, that is, ‘coordinated investigation' is not suffice in law to justify such transfer under Section 127 of the IT Act. The respondents are obligated to assign specific reasons with respect to ‘coordinated investigation' so to be able to justify an order of transfer under section 127. Since, in the present matter there is no investigation pending against the petitioner, no such specific reason could have been there to justify such transfer,” the plea said.

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