Mere 43 Days Delay is not a Bar to Claim Income Tax Refund: Bombay High Court [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court has quashed the CBDT’s order rejecting the assessee’s application for condonation of the 43-day delay in filing the return of in delay in filing the return of income (ITR).

Madhani Estate, the petitioner paid tax amounting to Rs.91,38,083/- which is also reflected in Form 26AS. Petitioner filed its return of income belatedly on 30th November 2016 under Section 139(4) of the Income Tax Act 1961 (the Act). The due date for filing the income tax return was 30th September 2016. The time to file income tax returns had been extended up to 17 October 2016. Hence there was a delay of 43 days in filing the return of income.

The petitioner requested respondent no.3, Commissioner of Income Tax-22, to condone the delay in filing the return of income and explained to respondent no.3 that the delay was due to the concerned person who was entrusted with the work of filing of the return being indisposed due to medical reasons. 

Petitioner requested for rectifying the mistake and filed revised return on 13th August 2019. In the impugned order, it was mentioned that the petitioner has failed in proving the genuine hardship.

The court noted that the phrase "genuine hardship is used in Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act. The court has held that the phrase "genuine hardship" should be construed liberally, particularly when the legislature conferred the power to condone the delay to enable the authorities to do substantive justice to the parties by disposing of the matter on merits.

The bench comprising Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice Firdosh P. Pooniwalla quashed and set aside the order dated 24^th December 2020 impugned in this petition and remitted the matter back to the Board for denovo consideration.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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