Direction to deposit 20 % of Income Tax Demanded as Condition to Treat assessee as Person not in Default: Kerala HC upholds Order Directing to file Stay Application [Read Order]

The Kerala High Court upheld the order granting one week time to file a stay application against an income tax order where the assessee was directed to remit 20% of the demand as a condition for Treating him as a person, not in default.

T S Aji, the appellant is aggrieved by the identical orders passed by the 1st respondent to remit 20% of the demand as a condition for treating him as a person not in default. The appellant's father was an assessee under the Income Tax Act, of 1961 (the IT Act).

Aggrieved by the assessment order, the appellant's father preferred statutory appeals before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). The appellant's father also moved an application under section 220(6) of the IT Act before the 1st  respondent.

The 1st respondent asked the appellant's father to remit 20% of the demand as a condition for treating him as a person not in default. In the meanwhile, the appellant's father died. The appellant filed writ petitions challenging the said condition imposed. After hearing both sides, the learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petitions.  The appellant is before us challenging the judgments in the writ petitions.

It was found that the appeals preferred by the appellant's father against the assessment orders are pending before the Appellate Authority/the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). The appellant can very well move stay applications before the Appellate Authority. It appears that the appellant has moved no such stay applications.  The learned Single Judge has granted one week to the appellant to file the stay applications. 

A division bench of Dr Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar & Dr Justice Kauser Edappagath while dismissing the petition held that “if the appellant prefers stay applications before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) within one week from today, he shall consider and dispose of either the stay applications or the appeals itself within three weeks after the receipt of the stay applications after hearing both sides.”

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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