Delhi High Court Dismisses Revenue's Appeal In Avery Dennison Transfer Pricing Case, Upholds ITAT Order On Intra-Group Services
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the Income Tax Department's appeal against M/s Avery Dennison (India) Pvt. Ltd., reaffirming that no substantial question of law arises where the Transfer Pricing Officer's (TPO) conclusions are unsupported by cogent evidence and the issue stands settled in favour of the assessee in earlier years. A Division Bench comprising Justice V. Kameswar Rao...
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the Income Tax Department's appeal against M/s Avery Dennison (India) Pvt. Ltd., reaffirming that no substantial question of law arises where the Transfer Pricing Officer's (TPO) conclusions are unsupported by cogent evidence and the issue stands settled in favour of the assessee in earlier years.
A Division Bench comprising Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Mini Pushkarna was hearing an appeal filed by the Revenue for AY. 2012-2013, stated that that identical issues had been initiated by the Revenue since Assessment Year 2007-08 and had been consistently decided against it.
The case in hand related to the issue that the TPO had concluded, no services were actually rendered by the associated enterprises and that the payments lacked commercial justification. However, the ITAT had accepted the assessee's explanation, noting that services were rendered under written agreements and supported by detailed evidence, and that similar payments had consistently been accepted in earlier assessment years.
While examining the challenge, the High Court noted that identical issues involving Avery Dennison had been agitated by the Revenue repeatedly since Assessment Year 2007-08 and had consistently failed before the Court. The Bench specifically referred to its earlier judgment in the assessee's own case for Assessment Year 2015-16, where the Court had dismissed the Revenue's appeal on the same transfer pricing dispute.
Holding that both the Dispute Resolution Panel and the ITAT had taken a well-reasoned and consistent view based on facts, the Court ruled that there was no justification to interfere with the Tribunal's findings.
In view of the above, the Delhi High Court dismissed the Revenue's appeal.
Case Title: Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi-I Vs. M/S Avery Dennison (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Case No: ITA No. 690/2025
Appearance of Appellant: Mr. Vipul Agarwal, SSC with Ms. Sakashi Shairwal, JSC, Mr. Akshat Singh, JSC, Ms. Harshita Kotru, Mr. G. Ranjan, Advs.
Appearance for Respondent: Mr. Vishal Kalra, Mr.S.S. Tomar and Mr. Anil Kumar, Advs