A Single Bench of Kerala High Court directed the Commissioner of Income Tax Appeal (CIT(A)) to condone delay as the Commissioner of Income Tax is empowered to condone delay for filing return under Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act 1961.
This writ petition had been filed by Marayamuttom Service Co-Operative Bank Ltd praying for a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to open online window to the petitioner to enable him to file the annual income tax return for the assessment year 2022-23.
Section 139(1) of the Income Tax Act sets out a timeline for filing returns of income tax. Admittedly, the petitioner could not file return of his income within the timeline prescribed under Section 13(1) of the Income Tax Act. The reason for not filing of the income tax return on time was that the petitioner was a co-operative society, which was required the help of Audit Report from the Co-operative Department of the State and which the petitioner could get after the timeline prescribed under Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act got expired. Therefore, the petitioner could not file a return of income within the timeline prescribed under the Income Tax Act.
If the timeline got expired and the assessee could not file return by 31st December of the Assessment year, then there is a provision under Sub Section (4) of Section 139 of Income Tax Act, which allows the assessees to file the return for any previous year at any time before three months prior to the end of the relevant assessment year or before completion of the assessment year, whichever is earlier. There was yet another provision ie., SubSection (8A) of Section 139, which also permitted filing of the updated returns. The Commissioner of Income Tax was empowered under Section 119 (2)(b) of the Income Tax Act to condone the delay in filing the return on time.
Babu S. Nair, for the petitioner submitted that he will approach the jurisdictional Commissioner with an application for condoning the delay in filing the return and if the Commissioner would condone the delay, he will upload the return of his income, which may be treated as the return filed on time.
The revenue department had not much objection to the steps suggested by the petitioner, inasmuch as the Act itself empowers the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) or on delegation of the said power to the Commissioner to condone the delay in filing the income tax return on time.
A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh disposed of the writ petition allowing the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional Commissioner with an application for condoning the delay, within a period of 15 days from today. If such an application was made, the jurisdictional Commissioner could decide the application expeditiously, in accordance with law.
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