Vivad Se Vishwas Form 5 must follow timely compliance; portal error cannot defeat an eligible declarant's scheme benefit.

Once a declarant under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme had filed the declarations, received Form 3, and made payment within time, issuance of Form 5 was not discretionary. The Calcutta HC held that a portal error wrongly clubbing the payment for Assessment Year 2015-16 against Assessment Year 2014-15 could not defeat an otherwise eligible claim. The Department was bound to rectify the mismatch, delink the payment, and issue Form 5 for Assessment Year 2015-16 on verification of the challan.

---

---

Issues: Whether Form 5 under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2020 was required to be issued for Assessment Year 2015-16 after the declarant had filed declarations, received Form 3, and made payment within time, despite the payment being wrongly clubbed against Assessment Year 2014-15 because of a portal error.

Analysis: The petitioner had filed declarations for both assessment years and had paid the amounts computed in Form 3. The respondents accepted that the payment for Assessment Year 2015-16 was reflected against Assessment Year 2014-15 due to a technical error in the portal, and also conceded that the petitioner remained eligible for issuance of Form 5 for Assessment Year 2015-16. Once the conditions of the scheme were satisfied, issuance of Form 5 was not discretionary. The Department could not rely on its own technical error to deny the benefit of the scheme to an otherwise eligible declarant.

Conclusion: The respondents were bound to rectify the payment mismatch, delink the payment for Assessment Year 2015-16 from Assessment Year 2014-15, and issue Form 5 for Assessment Year 2015-16 on verification of the challan.

---