Sabka Vishwas Scheme adjustment of protest deposits upheld where pre-adjudication payments had to be deducted in computation.

Amounts deposited under protest, including sums reflected as interest, had to be adjusted while computing relief under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019. The Court read the expression "any amount paid" broadly and held that deposits made during enquiry, investigation or audit did not lose their character because they were booked under different heads. As the payments were made before crystallisation of liability and before adjudication, they were required to be deducted in the Scheme statement. The Revenue's challenge to that computation therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether amounts deposited by the assessee under protest, including amounts shown as interest, were required to be adjusted while computing the amount payable under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019.

Analysis: The Scheme, as enacted in the Finance Act, 2019, provides that relief is to be computed subject to deduction of amounts already paid as pre-deposit or deposit during enquiry, investigation or audit. The Court treated the expression "any amount paid" as broad enough to cover deposits made under protest and held that the deposited amount did not acquire a separate colour merely because it was booked under different heads. Since the deposits had been made before crystallisation of the liability and before adjudication, they were liable to be taken into account while issuing the statement under the Scheme.

Conclusion: The amounts deposited by the assessee under protest were required to be adjusted, and the challenge to the computation raised by the Revenue failed.

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