Pending appeal under tax dispute-settlement scheme cannot be rejected solely on maintainability objections to the appellate challenge.

A taxpayer cannot be denied access to the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 merely because the maintainability of a pending appeal is questioned. Where a revision under section 264 has been dismissed and an appeal remains on file before the appellate forum on the specified date, that pending challenge is sufficient to attract the scheme. The proper forum to decide whether the appeal is maintainable is the appellate proceedings themselves, not the scheme-processing authority. Rejection of Form-1 on a jurisdictional objection was therefore unsustainable, and the assessee was entitled to the scheme benefit.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to avail the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 and whether rejection of Form-1 on the ground that the petitioner had waived the right of appeal was sustainable.

Analysis: The scheme applies where disputed tax is pending before an appellate forum by way of appeal, writ petition, or special leave petition on the specified date. The petitioner's revision under Section 264 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 had been dismissed, and the subsequent appeal before the appellate authority was on file and pending. The question of whether that appeal was maintainable was held to be for the appellate authority to decide, and the existence of such a pending challenge was sufficient to attract the scheme. The rejection of the application on a jurisdictional objection was therefore not proper.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to the benefit of the scheme, and the rejection of Form-1 was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tax demand is under challenge by a pending appeal before the appellate forum, the assessee cannot be denied the benefit of a dispute-settlement scheme merely because the authority questions the appeal's maintainability; such objections are to be decided in the appellate proceedings themselves.

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