Timely tender under Sabka Vishwas scheme cannot be defeated by delayed bank credit; discharge certificate and refund followed.

Under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019, timely tender of the admitted amount in the prescribed electronic mode could not be defeated by delayed bank credit where Rule 7 was amended to allow payment on or before 30 June 2020. The procedural amendment was treated as applicable retrospectively, and the petitioners were found to have complied by tendering payment on 30 June 2020; the next-day credit was attributable to the banking mechanism, not any default by them. Accordingly, discharge under the scheme was due, and the penalty and recovery action were unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners, having tendered the admitted amount on 30 June 2020 under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019, could be denied discharge certificate and saddled with penalty merely because the amount was credited to the respondents' account on 1 July 2020.

Analysis: The payment obligation under Form SVLDRS-3 was initially required to be met within 30 days, but Rule 7 was later amended to permit payment on or before 30 June 2020. The amended provision was treated as applicable to the scheme and, being procedural in nature, was held to operate retrospectively. The Court further found that the amount had been tendered on 30 June 2020 through the prescribed electronic mode and that any delay in credit was attributable to the banking process and not to the petitioners. In these circumstances, the petitioners could not be penalised for non-payment within the original 30-day period.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to discharge under the scheme, and the penalty and recovery action were not sustainable.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded on contest, the respondents were required to issue the discharge certificate and refund the recovered penalty amount.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a payment-condition under a tax settlement scheme is later extended by a procedural amendment, timely tender of the amount in the prescribed mode cannot be defeated by delayed credit caused by the banking mechanism.

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