Failure to Pay Under Vivad Se Vishwas 2020 Revives Withdrawn Revision Petitions Automatically: J&K HC [Read Order]
J&K High Court set aside the rejection of DTVSV 2024 application, holding that non-payment under Vivad Se Vishwas 2020 automatically revives withdrawn revision petitions by law.
In a recent ruling, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court held that if a taxpayer fails to make payment under the Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020, then the withdrawn revision petitions gets revived automatically by law. The Court also held that because of this revival, the assessee can be treated as eligible under the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024.
Vidya Sagar Sharma, the petitioner, filed a writ petition challenging the order dated 10.01.2025 by which his Form-1 under DTVSV Scheme 2024 was rejected. The department rejected it saying that no revision petition under Section 264 ofthe Income Tax Act was pending on the cut-off date 22.07.2024.
The case was related to Assessment Year 2011-12. The petitioner was earlier assessed under Sections 144/147 and a demand of Rs. 29,73,640 was raised. A separate penalty order dated 14.06.2019 under Section 271(1)(c) imposed a penalty of Rs. 10,62,037. The petitioner had filed revision petitions under Section 264 against both the assessment and penalty orders.
Later, when DTVSV Act 2020 came, the petitioner applied under it by filing Forms 1 and 2 and giving undertaking on 23.02.2021. Form-3 was issued on 04.03.2021 showing the amount payable. After that, the petitioner withdrew the revision petitions and they were disposed of on 17.03.2021. But the petitioner did not deposit the required amount even after the deadlines were extended, and Form-4 was also not submitted.
In 2024, the petitioner again applied under DTVSV Scheme 2024. But the department rejected it saying revision petitions were already disposed in 2021, so nothing was pending on 22.07.2024.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that under Section 4(2) of the Act of 2020, once Form-3 is issued, the proceedings are deemed withdrawn by law. He also argued that under Section 4(6), if the assessee fails to follow the conditions and does not make payment, then the declaration is treated as never made and all withdrawn proceedings gets revived automatically. So the revision petitions should be treated as revived and pending.
The department argued that once the revision petitions were withdrawn and disposed of, they cannot be treated as pending. The department also argued that Section 4(6) should not be read in such a way that it revives revision petitions filed by the assessee.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal observed that Section 4(2) works automatically and the deemed withdrawal happens from the date Form-3 is issued. The court also observed that Section 4(6) creates a legal fiction and once the assessee fails to comply, the declaration becomes void and all proceedings withdrawn under Section 4 are deemed to be revived.
The court rejected the department’s narrow interpretation and explained that the words “all the proceedings and claims” does not make any distinction between department proceedings and assessee proceedings. The court also pointed out that the scheme definition of “appellant” is wide and includes a person who filed revision under Section 264. In view of this, the court set aside the order.
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