2014 (11) TMI 942

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....parties shall be referred to as the assessee and the Revenue. hitherto 3. Special Civil Application Nos. 13290 & 13291 of 2004 are filed by the petitionerassesses, therein, challenging the order passed by the respondent-Revenue, Dated : 09.06.2004, under Section 119(2)(a) read with Sections 234B and 234C of the Income Tax Act, 1962 ('the Act', for short) and with a prayer to direct the Revenue to waive the interest charged on the assesses under aforesaid sections for the A.Y.s 1996-97 and 1997- 98. 4. Special Civil Application No. 7921 of 2006 is filed by the assessee, therein, with a prayer to direct the Revenue to waive the interest charged on the assessee under aforesaid sections for the A.Y.s 1995-96 to 1999-2000, by quashing and sett....

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....he Act for waiver of interest levied on it under Section 234B of the Act, which came to be dismissed by the Revenue vide impugned order dated 09.01.2006. Hence, the present petition. 7. Mr. Soparkar, learned Sr. Advocate appearing for the petitioner-assesses, submitted that the impugned orders passed by the Revenue are bad in law and in violation of the provisions of Article 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. He submitted that the assesses filed their income of return prior to the decision of the Apex Court in "TUTICORIN ALKALIES CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS LTD." (Supra), and therefore, the AO was not justified in levying interest on the revised return and in view of the instructions of the CBDT, Dated : 23.05.1996, the Revenue ough....

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....of the Act. We are in unison with this submission of the learned Solicitor General. This Court in a catena of cases has held that the circulars of the Central Board of Direct Taxes are legally binding on the Revenue : see UCO Bank v. CIT (1999) 237 ITR 889 (SC). Since these circulars are beneficial to assesses, such benefit can be conferred also on assesses who have approached the Settlement Commission under section 245C of the Act on such terms and conditions as contained in the circular. In our opinion, it is for this purpose that section 245F of the Act has empowered the Settlement Commission to exercise the power of an income-tax authority under the Act. We must clarify here that while exercising the power derived under the circulars of....