Delhi High Court directs authority to rectify SVLDRS declaration, consider it as one filed under the ‘litigation’ category instead of ‘voluntary disclosure’ [Read Judgment]

Delhi High Court - authority - SVLDRS - litigation - voluntary disclosure - Taxscan

The Delhi High Court while granting the relief to the applicant directed the authority to rectify declaration under Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (SVLDRS).

The petitioner, Bhawna Malhotra prayed for reading down Section 128 of Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 in the interest of justice and equity and to hold that any clerical or arithmetical error made by an applicant in SVLDRS-1 also falls within the ambit of said Section.

Petitioner further prays for a direction to the respondent Committee to allow it to rectify the declaration dated 30th December, 2019 and consider it as one filed under the “litigation” category instead of “voluntary disclosure” category and grant consequential benefits.

The petitioner stated that the respondent has rejected the petitioner‟s rectification application on the ground that Section 128 confers limited powers upon the designated committee and it is not empowered to rectify errors committed by the petitioner/applicant/ declarant/assessee.

It was emphasised that the error in the present case was a “clerical” error that was apparent on the face of the record and the designated committee was statutorily obliged to rectify the same. He states that if the rectification is carried out, no undue benefit would accrue to the petitioner.

On the other hand, respondent authority stated that it is the petitioner who has committed a mistake in the declaration form under the SVLDRS by filing it under the category of “voluntary disclosure” instead of “litigation” category. According to him, the declaration form is very clear and there is no scope for committing any mistake.

The  respondent authority contended that the petitioner has been reckless in filing the declaration form and she cannot now seek to reopen the proceedings for her own benefit.

The authority further submitted that the scope of Section 128 pertains to powers of modification or rectification of an order passed by the designated committee and that too to correct an arithmetical or a clerical error apparent on the face of record only.

The division judge bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sanjeev Narula directed the authority to rectify the declaration dated 30th December, 2019 and consider it as one filed under the “litigation” category instead of “voluntary disclosure” and process the same in accordance with law within 4 weeks.

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