MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court on Monday convicted two directors of an Andheri-based firm to three months' rigorous imprisonment for defaulting on 6 lakh tax deducted at source (TDS) payment in 2012. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate M I Lokwani also imposed 5,000 fine on each. Conviction in TDS cases is a rarity, said officials.Shailesh Shah and his wife Bhavana , who run Lightwave Trading in Andheri (E), were released on bail and will appeal against the conviction. A A Shanker, principal chief commissioner, I-T (Mumbai region), said TDS had not been deposited by the due date. The deducted TDS amount must be deposited on the 7th of every month.Shanker said, “The income tax (I-T) department is rigorously pursing TDS default cases. Since last year, we have filed more than 800 prosecution cases. We are also carrying out investigations, including surveys, to detect TDS default cases.” Several cases have been pending before the court since 2015, and recently the I-T department started following up on them to take them to their logical end.The I-T department has also appointed special public prosecutor Amit Munde to handle some of these cases.In the present case, the company defaulted on the TDS payment and the I-T department issued its first show-cause notice to the two directors in 2012. After a prosecution sanction was granted against the two, the I-T department filed a prosecution complaint in 2014 under section 276B (default of payment beyond due date) and 278B (office-bearers of a company can be prosecuted for default) of the Income-Tax Act.The accused directors filed for settlement before the I-T authority to close the case, but they failed to appear for the hearing. After which, the I-T department rejected their settlement request.Munde said, “The two accused were avoiding court proceedings for a long time. The I-T department rejected their request for settlement on the grounds of non-appearance. They also tried to delay the process by approaching the Bombay high court for a stay on the ongoing case proceeding, but in vain.”

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