Anil Ambani. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Bombay High Court has imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on industrialist Anil Ambani for seeking an urgent hearing in a petition challenging a tax notice issued to him on April 12, 2022.

Mr. Ambani had moved the High Court seeking an urgent hearing on March 27, challenging the show cause notice issued to him by the Income Tax department.

A Division Bench of Justice M.S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain expressed their displeasure over the urgency and called it an “artificial urgency”.

The Bench observed, “Heard Mr. Gunjan Kakkad, learned Counsel for the Petitioner. This praecipe is moved to take up the matter urgently. The challenge is to the notice of 12 April 2022. This facility for urgent circulation cannot be invoked by creating such artificial urgency. Besides, the challenge is only to a show cause notice. The Petitioner has moved the Court at the fag end when the assessment is likely to be time barred by 31 March 2025. Accordingly, we dismiss this praecipe with cost of Rs.25,000/- payable to Tata Memorial Hospital. The cost should be paid within two weeks from today. The matter is to come up on the assigned date.” 

The copy of the March 27 order was made available on Wednesday (April 2, 2025).

The petition was scheduled for hearing on April 1, but Mr. Ambani’s counsel Rafiq Dada informed the court that it would be withdrawn as, on March 27, the Income Tax department had passed an order for the assessment year concerned. He also informed the Bench that the costs imposed by the court had been paid.

The High Court accepted the statement and disposed of the petition.