Relief for Huawei in I-T Case: Local Court sets aside summons for Huawei India
Huawei, its chief executive and three other top executives, summoning them to commence prosecution proceedings in a case filed by the Income Tax Department.
In an order that offers a major relief to Huawei India, its CEO Li Xiongwei and the others, the sessions court said summoning of the accused «is a serious matter and should not be done in a mechanical manner».
The tax department had approached the magisterial court seeking to prosecute the company and the executives on charges of deliberately not providing information sought by it. The magistrate issued the summons in June.
In a sharply worded judgement, the sessions court said though no detailed order was required at the stage of summoning, the order «must reflect application of mind by the magistrate».
Perusal of the summoning order reveals that the magistrate «got swayed with the version of» the Income Tax Department, it said.
The sessions court observed that the summoning order was passed on the basis that the accused gave «vague or incongruous answers», but it did not speak about the specific answers on the basis of which they were summoned. «It is settled law that the court cannot act as the mouthpiece of the prosecution, but has to apply its mind independently to the facts of the case to decide whether the ingredients of the alleged sections are prima facie made out and whether there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against the accused persons».
Appearing on behalf of the company and its executives, advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued that the trial court in Delhi had no territorial jurisdiction to try the alleged offences which were allegedly committed in Gurgaon, Haryana.
