The Kerala High Court has set aside the condition of imposing a remittance of 15% of the total income tax demand for the grant of stay, deeming it arbitrary.
The appellant had impugned assessment order in the writ petition when confronted with recovery steps for recovery of the amounts confirmed against it by the order. It was the case of the appellant that against the assessment order, it preferred an appeal along with an application to condone the delay and a stay petition before the commissioner of Income Tax, the Appellate Authority.
A Single Judge disposed of the writ petition with a direction to the commissioner of Income Tax to consider and pass appropriate orders on the application for condoning the delay as well as the stay petition within a period of two months.
Even though further granted stay of recovery proceedings, the petitioner/appellant was directed to remit 15% of the total demand as per assessment order within a period of one week as a condition for the stay which is under challenge in this appeal. The Single Judge had relegated the appellant to the alternative remedy before the statutory authority and stay of the recovery proceedings was granted.
The two-bench of Justice A.K.Jayasankara Nambiar Justice Kauser Edappagath stated that “the condition imposed to remit 15% of the total demand for grant of stay is arbitrary. Accordingly, we modify the impugned judgment of the learned Single Judge setting aside the condition imposed to remit 15% of the total demand.”
Accordingly, the bench modified the impugned judgment of the Single Judge setting aside the condition imposed to remit 15% of the total demand. Apart from this specific alteration, all other directives in the judgment remain unaffected. Subsequently, the writ appeal was concluded and disposed of.
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