Orissa HC Grants Relief to Petitioner for One-Hour Delay in Filing Audit Report [Read Order]

In a recent judgment, the Orissa High Court granted relief to an assessee for a marginal delay of just over an hour in uploading its audit report in Form 10B.

Silicon Institute of Technology (assessee/petitioner) was a trust duly registered under the Income Tax Act of 1961.

The petitioner trust was required to upload its audit report in Form 10B by 31st October, 2023. However, the upload was completed at 1:19:16 AM on 1st November 2023, resulting in a delay of 1 hour, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds.

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The assessee, therefore, applied for the condonation of delay. But the authority was not satisfied with the reason submitted by the assessee for condoning the delay.

The authority held that the reason submitted was not sufficient and not a fit case for condoning delay. Aggrieved by the order, the assessee filed a writ petition before the High Court of Orissa.

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S.S. Padhy, counsel appearing for the assessee, argued that the delay was unintentional and happened just after midnight on 1st November 2023. He argued that it was a genuine mistake that happened because of technical glitches and did not cause any harm to the interests of the revenue.

Meanwhile, A. Kedia, junior standing counsel for the department, seeks an adjournment.

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The counsel supported the impugned order by relying on the BU. Bhandari Nandgude Patil Associates (2017) case. In the said matter, the Delhi High Court held that statutory deadlines must be followed and extensions may be granted only on compelling, well-supported grounds.

The counsel asserted that the petitioner’s claim does not have any valid grounds and is without any solid proof.

The case was heard by a Division Bench comprising Justice Arindam Sinha and Justice M.S. Sahoo, which rejected the department's request for adjournment and proceeded to hear the matter.

The court acknowledged that while deadlines must be respected, a pragmatic approach must also be taken when dealing with minor infractions, especially where the delay is negligible and does not prejudice the department.

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The court noted that the report was uploaded merely one hour beyond the deadline, and such a short delay could not have seriously prejudiced the department.

The court found the impugned order denying condonation to be arbitrary and lacking proper reasoning, thereby quashing the matter.

The Orissa High Court also directed that the audit report filed by the petitioner be treated as due compliance, thereby granting relief to the petitioner.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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