CWPs No.596, 597, 598, 599, 600, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605 & 607 of 2004 04.06.2008 Present: M/s Rupesh Jain, Tejmohan Singh, Surinder Sharma, counsel for the petitioners, in all the petitions. Ms Shilpa Sood, Central Government Counsel, for respondent No.1, in all the petitions. Mr. Vinay Kuthiala & Ms Vandana Kuthiala, counsel for respondents No.2 and 3, in all the petitions. On a query being put by the Court during the course of hearing of the matters, learned counsel for the petitioners concedes that the statutory right of appeal against the impugned order being available to the writ petitioners and appreciation of statements, recorded at the time of the search and during the course of inquiry, after search, being involved in these matters, the right course for the writ petitioners was to have filed appeals before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. He, however, submits that now the equity is in favour of the writ petitioners because the have matters remained pending in this Court for almost four years and if appeals are now filed before the Tribunal, those will be rejected on the ground of being barred by time. This difficulty expressed by the learned counsel for the writ petitioners should not be there, because the period spent by the writ petitioners in pursuing these writ petitions in this Court can be excluded, by virtue of the provision of Section 14 of the Limitation Act. …2… CWPs No.596, 597, 598, 599, 600, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605 & 607 of 2004 Consequently, we dismiss the present writ petitions, with liberty to the writ petitioners to appeal against the impugned orders to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. We also order that if appeals are filed before the Tribunal, it (the Tribunal) shall give allowance for the period during which the writ petitions have remained pending in this Court, while calculating the period of limitation. The writ petitions were filed in this Court on 17th August, 2004 and are dismissed as withdrawn today, i.e. 4th June, 2008. Therefore, the period from 17th August, 2004 to this day, i.e. 4th June, 2008, is to be excluded while determining whether the appeals, which the writ petitioners may file before the Tribunal, are within time or not. All the pending applications (in all the writ petitions), if any, shall also stand disposed of as infructuous. Copy of the order be given Dasti today itself. ( Surjit Singh ), J. June 4, 2008(sd) ( Surinder Singh ), J.