Tax refund adjustment against amnesty liability upheld, with procedural objections held insufficient to defeat substantive relief.

Where the revenue owed refundable tax to the assessee and the assessee sought to set it off against liability under an amnesty scheme, a procedural objection to the online adjustment mechanism could not defeat substantive relief when the objection was untenable. The High Court upheld the adjustment of the refund toward the amnesty liability and rejected the State's challenge to that relief, leaving the direction in favour of the assessee intact.

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Issues: Whether the assessee could seek adjustment of refundable tax amounts against the liability under the Amnesty scheme, and whether the State's challenge to such adjustment was maintainable.

Analysis: The assessee had admitted refund amounts for earlier assessment years and also sought to avail the State Amnesty scheme for a later assessment year. The State's objection was that the online procedure did not contemplate the requested adjustment, but that objection was found unacceptable. The grounds raised in the intra-court appeal were held to be untenable.

Conclusion: The assessee's request for adjustment was accepted and the State's appeal was dismissed.

Final Conclusion: The decision left intact the direction granting adjustment-related relief in favour of the assessee, while imposing only a token cost on the appellant State.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the revenue owes a refund to the assessee and the assessee seeks to use that amount toward meeting an amnesty liability, a procedural objection to the mode of adjustment cannot defeat the substantive relief when the objection is otherwise untenable.

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