Deposit of Balance Amount Payable under Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act Delayed on Unforeseen Circumstances: Allahabad HC Condones Delay of 3 Days [Read Order]

The Allahabad High Court condoned delay of 3 days on the ground that the deposit of balance amount payable under Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act (DTVSVA) delayed on unforeseen circumstances.

By means of the present writ petition, the petitioner, Digvendra Pratap Singh, has challenged the order passed by respondent No.3 by which the application of the petitioner for condoning the delay of three days in depositing the balance amount payable by him under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020, has been rejected.

The counsel for the petitioner is that the Parliament enacted the Act 2020 for the resolution of disputed tax. As per the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020, the declarant should submit his declaration under Section 4 of the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 before the designated authority, and thereafter the designated authority, after receiving the declaration submitted by the declarant, will grant a certificate to the declarant containing particulars of the tax arrears and the amount payable after such determination.

The counsel for the petitioner challenged the impugned order on the ground that there was a delay of three days in depositing the balance amount of tax, firstly for the reason that the last date for depositing the balance tax fell on Sunday. Secondly, because of the injury in his knee he could not approach the bank from 1.11.2021 to 3.11.2021.

The counsel for the Income Tax Department had submitted that after getting the declaration of the petitioner, certificate under Section 5 of the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 in Form-III was issued to the petitioner on 9.11.2020, but the petitioner by skipping the dates for depositing balance outstanding, kept on waiting for the extension of date and even could not deposit the balance outstanding of tax till last extended date.

A Division Bench of Justices Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal and Siddhartha Varma observed that “The petitioner’s application for condonation of delay of three days was also rejected by the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Tax by order. The fact of dropping of cheque in the drop box as well as the accident of the petitioner was not disputed by the respondent in the counter affidavit. Now the fact remained is whether the delay of three days in depositing the arrears of tax can be condoned, considering the fact of unforeseen circumstances which were beyond the control of the petitioner.”

“In view of the law mentioned above, as well as considering the pleadings and perusal of record, the Court is of the view that a delay of three days in depositing the arrears of tax of Rs. 8,67,137/- deserves to be condoned, and the amount balance tax deposited by the petitioner be accepted by the respondents treating the same well within time as per the scheme of the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 and also the impugned order /letter, passed by Central Board of Direct Tax, is hereby quashed” the Court concluded.

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