Delhi High Court Refuses To Condone 9-Month Delay By Assessee In Filing Revised Income Tax Return

The Delhi High Court has refused to condone a delay of 9-months by an assessee in filing his revised income tax return (ITR).A division bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Vinod Kumar remarked,“Surely it should not take nine months to realize that initial ITR has some mistakes, which requires a revised return.”The Court was dealing with a plea against rejection of Petitioner's application under Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 seeking condonation of delay of nine months in filing the revised ITR.As per the Petitioner, the initial ITR was filed with errors wherein the loss from business was shown as a speculative loss.Petitioner argued that the ITR pertained to FY 2020-2021 when the world was reeling with Covid-19 pandemic, he was out of country and was dependent on an advisor, leading to the delay in filing revised ITR.The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax had dismissed his application stating that Section 119(2)(b) empowers Income Tax Authorities to condone delays for claims of refund or loss only when the delay was genuinely outside the taxpayer's control. “Ignorance of law or dependence on an advisor is generally not accepted as sufficient cause; “genuine hardship” typically requires unexpected or unavoidable circumstances beyond the assessee's reasonable control,” it had said.Agreeing with the PCIT, the High Court said, “we find nine months is a very huge period.” It added that the e-filing portal was accessible globally and the Petitioner could have filed his revised ITR from anywhere.Further, on Petitioner's dependence on an advisor, the Court said,“We have been informed that the petitioner is the President of a Trust that runs a Hospital at Dwarka. If that be so the petitioner is presumed to have the knowledge of the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) including the knowledge to know the manner in which a right/correct return is filed.”As such, it dismissed the plea.Appearance: Mr Mr. Neeraj Yadav, Ms Shreya Sethi, Advs. for Petitioner; Mr. Shlok Chandra, SSC, Ms. Naincy Jain, JSC, Ms. Madhavi Shukla, JSC.Case title: Sanjay Khurana v. Income Tax Department Ministry Of FinanceCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1621Case no.: W.P.(C) 17379/2025 Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Refuses To Condone 9-Month Delay By Assessee In Filing Revised Income Tax Return

Kapil Dhyani

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