Amnesty scheme benefit upheld where pandemic disruption and consultant's explained delay in completing departmental communication.

The petitioner was treated as having effectively availed the amnesty scheme because it had already pursued the remand process for filing statutory forms and had deposited the amount payable under the scheme. The Court accepted that the revised demand was received on 16 March 2020, immediately before the COVID-19 disruption, and relied on the Supreme Court's limitation relaxation period from 15 March 2020 to 28 February 2022. It also considered the death of the petitioner's consultant as a further explanation for the delay in completing departmental communication. On those facts, the rejection communication and consequential recovery action were found unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to the benefit of the amnesty scheme despite delay in communicating the revised demand and whether the rejection communication and consequential bank attachment could be quashed.

Analysis: The petitioner had already pursued the amnesty route by seeking remand for furnishing the statutory forms, and the revised demand was worked out after the appellate authority's order. The Court noted that the petitioner received the revised order on 16 March 2020 and that the COVID-19 pandemic intervened immediately thereafter. The period from 15 March 2020 to 28 February 2022 was treated as a relaxation period for limitation in light of the Supreme Court's directions. The Court also took note of the death of the petitioner's consultant, who had been handling the matter, and held that these circumstances explained the failure to complete the departmental communication in time. Since the petitioner had already deposited Rs. 6,04,393 as payable under the scheme, the benefit of the amnesty scheme was found to have been effectively availed.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to the benefit of the amnesty scheme, and the rejection communication together with the consequential recovery action were unsustainable.

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