Refusal To Condone Delay In ITR filing , Consideration After 20 Years, Allahabad High Court Quashes Order

The Allahabad High Court has quashed the order refusing to delay condonation in filing ITRs for lack of records after more than 20 years of filing the condonation applications.

The bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Manoj Bajaj has observed that when the delay condonation application was filed on March 30, 1998, the applications ought to have been decided within the time provided by the Income Tax Act. The court was of the view that, at that point in time, all the records would have been available.

The return of income for AYs 1994–1995 and 1995–1996 was submitted by the petitioner/assessee on March 30, 1998, with delays of 1095 and 730 days, respectively. After more than 20 years, the applications were eventually rejected with the justification that the assessee's case could not be considered because the record could not be found.

The petitioner contended that no notice, etc., was served upon the petitioner for presenting himself while the order was passed. Had that been done, the petitioner would have supplied the receipts for the TDS, etc.

The department contended that the returns, which were for the assessment years of 1994–95 and 1995–96, were not filed within the limitation provided, i.e., until June 30, 1994, and June 30, 1995, respectively. Therefore they had become non-est returns, which could not be looked into.

The Department submitted that if another opportunity is given to the Department to pass an order, then every effort shall be made to reconstruct the record after including the TDS receipts, etc., which could be obtained from the petitioner. The petitioner shall also be afforded the opportunity of a proper hearing.

The court stated that the order dated October 24, 2019, which has been passed after more than 20 years of the filing of the applications on the ground that the records were not available, deserves to be set aside. The Principal Commissioner, Income Tax Department, shall now decide the applications of the petitioner, which were filed on March 30, 1998, afresh. While deciding the application, every effort shall be made to get the record reconstructed with the help of the petitioner and all available records.

Case Title: Kailash Chand Agarwal vs. Principal Commissioner [Writ Tax No. - 976 of 2022]

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 330

Counsel For Appellant: Mahima Jaiswal

Counsel For Respondent: Gaurav Mahajan

Click Here To Read The Order