Supreme Court says case cannot be transferred to it only because similar cases are pending before various High Courts

The fact that similar matters are pending before different High Courts is no reason to insist that the case should be transferred to the Supreme Court, the top court recently held. [Union of India and ors vs Jsvm Plywood Industries Ltd].A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on October 19 pointed out that the effect of doing so would be that the transferred proceedings would be rendered final and it will deprive parties of a right to appeal.."When matters are pending before different High Courts, there is bound to be differences of opinion. That is no reason to seek transfer of the cases pending before different High Courts to this Court so as to make the proceeding before this Court as an original as well as final proceeding, thereby depriving the unsuccessful party of a right of appeal," the bench explained. .The top court was hearing the Central government's appeals against orders passed by the Gauhati and Bombay High Courts in cases concerning reassessment notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act..The High Courts had issued orders directing no coercive action against the assessees. The assesses had contended that such reassessment notices were barred by limitation. The Union government, meanwhile, asserted that the limitation period applicable is ten years for such matters, as per Section 149 of the Income Tax Act.In its October 19 order, the Supreme Court took a prima facie view that there was no need to transfer the matter to itself. "Prima facie, we are of the view that when the matter is pending before the High Court, there is no justification for seeking transfer of the petition from the High Court to the Supreme Court," the Court said. .Since there was another similar transfer plea already pending, the Court tagged both transfer pleas together and posted the matter for further hearing on October 13, although it also opined "we do not think that the matter would require any further consideration.".Additional Solicitor General N Venkatraman with advocates Raj Bahadur Yadav, Sreekumar CN, VC Bharathi, Praveena Gautam, and Shashank Bajpai appeared for the Union government..[Read order]