In these writ appeals, the appellants are aggrieved by the identical orders passed by the 1st respondent to remit 20% of the demand as a condition for treating them as persons not in Default.
Both the appellants are assessees under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, the IT Act). Aggrieved by the assessment order, the appellants preferred statutory appeals before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).
The appellants also moved an application under Section 220(6) of the Income Tax Act, before the 1st respondent. In response to the said application, the 1st respondent asked the appellants to remit 20% of the demand as a condition for treating them as persons not in default.
The appellants filed writ petitions challenging the said condition imposed. After hearing both sides, the Single Judge of the Kerala High Court dismissed the writ petitions.
The appellants challenged the judgments in the writ petitions.
The Bench heard S. Ananthakrishnan, counsel for the appellants and Christopher Abraham, the standing counsel for the income tax department.
The Division Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that, “As stated already, the appeals preferred by the appellants against the assessment orders are pending before the Appellate Authority/the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).”
It was thus held that, “the appellants can very well move stay applications before the Appellate Authority. It appears that the appellants have moved no such stay applications.”
It was also noted that, “The learned Single Judge has granted one week’s time to the appellants to file the stay applications. We see no illegality in the impugned judgments. Hence, we dismiss the writ appeals.”
In a nod of relief to the assessee, it was held that, “if the appellants prefer 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 a period of three weeks after the receipt of the stay applications after hearing both sides.”
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