In a major relief to Pankajakasturi Herbals, the Kerala High Court ruled the last date mentioned under Section 245C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to file setcom (Settlement Commission) application is to be read as 31st March, 2021.
The present writ petitions have been filed, questioning orders in various writ petitions. The issue is covered by the judgment of the Division Bench of Madras High Court and connected cases in M/s Jain Metal Rolling Mills v. Union of India.
The Division Bench of the Madras High Court had disposed of the batch of these writ petition in following terms which is stated as:- “In the result, these writ petitions are partly allowed and are disposed off on the following terms :~ (i) Section 245C(5) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2021) is read down by removing the retrospective last date of 1st date of February, 2021 as 31st day of March, 2021.”
It was further noted that “Consequently the last date of eligibility mentioned paragraph 4(i) of the impugned circular dated 28.09.2021 shall also be read as 31.03.2021; all the applications in respect of the petitioners even in respect of the cases arising between 01.02.2021 to 31.03.2021 shall be deemed be pending applications and shall be deemed to be pending applications for the purposes of consideration by the Interim Board.”
A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that “As the issue is covered by the judgment of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court, in the judgment, M/s Jain Metal Rolling Mills, the present writ petitions are allowed and the aforesaid impugned orders are set aside. The cases are remitted back to the competent respondent for taking fresh decision on the applications in the light of the judgment as aforementioned.”
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