High Court of Madras on Section 245C(5) Of Income Tax Act Is Read Down By Removing Retrospective Last Date Of 1st Feb 21 As 31st March.
Title : M/s. Jain Metal Rolling Mills v. Union of India
Case no. : W.P.No.13455 of 2021
CORAM : THE HON’BLE MR. SANJAY V. GANGAPURWALA, CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE D.BHARATHA CHAKRAVARTHY
Decided on : 17.11.2023
Introduction
The petitioners also challenge the order issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, in F.No.299/22/2021-Dir(Inv.III)/174 dated 28.09.2021 in as much as it restricted the filing of the application before the Interim Board for Settlement only by the assesses who were eligible to file the application for settlement on 31.01.2021.
Fact of the Case
The factual background of the case is that the petitioners are all assessees of Income Tax. The matters pertaining to assessments and reopening etc., were pending and they have either approached or contemplating approaching the Settlement Commission as per Chapter XIX-A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter the Act). Originally, under Chapter XIX-A of the Act, the eligible assessees were entitled to approach the Settlement Commission (hereinafter ITSC) at any stage of a case relating to them and the ITSC will consider their cases as per the parameters and will grant relief by passing orders providing for the terms of settlement of the case. Thus, the eligible assessees had the additional option of resolution of the dispute by approaching ITSC. According to the petitioners, they are eligible and their cases are complex in nature and it would be uncertain to pursue the regular remedies and it would be beneficial for them to settle the issue.
Case Analysis and Judgment
.In the result, these writ petitions are partly allowed and are disposed off on the following terms :-
- Section 245C(5) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2021) is read down by removing the retrospective last date of 1 st date of February, 2021 as 31 st day of March, 2021,
- Consequently the last date of eligibility mentioned paragraph 4(i) of the impugned circular dated 28.09.2021 shall also be read as 31.03.2021;
- all the applications in respect of the petitioners even in respect of the cases arising between 01.02.2021 to 31.03.2021 shall be deemed be pending applications and shall be deemed to be pending applications for the purposes of consideration by the Interim Board.
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