SC dismisses Revenue’s appeal, upholds Bombay HC’s judgment quashing order passed by the appropriate authority u/s 269UD(1) (providing for pre-emptive purchase of immovable property by Govt in case of significant undervaluation of property with a view to evade tax

SC dismisses Revenue’s appeal, upholds Bombay HC’s judgment quashing order passed by the appropriate authority u/s 269UD(1) (providing for pre-emptive purchase of immovable property by Govt in case of significant undervaluation of property with a view to evade tax); In respect of assessee’s
agreement for transfer of development rights in respect of land owned by him, the development agreement of which was forwarded to competent authority for approval, it was held that consideration in respect of the property under consideration was understated by more than 15% of FMV and accordingly order u/s 269UD was passed; Relying on SC ruling in C.B. Gautam, HC had ruled that in order to draw inference of under-valuation, it was necessary to determine property’s FMV based on certain factors viz. locality, size of the plot, sale instances of comparable properties etc.; Based on the dissimilarities between the two properties, HC had held that sale instance property was not comparable with property under consideration and thus the action u/s 269UD was not justified, however, HC did not adjudicate whether the transfer of development rights was covered u/s 269UD; Upholding HC’s order, SC states that “Since these are findings of fact arrived at by the High Court which are based on the material on record, we do not find any reason to interfere with that decision.”  : SC