2020 (1) TMI 970

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....rchana Sinha @ Shahi, Sr. S.C. ORAL ORDER (PER: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE) The petition filed on 16.5.2018 is listed for hearing for the first time today before the Court. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the respondents. Petitioner has prayed for the following relief/s: "For issuance of direction to the Respondents to extend the time for furnishing online Income Tax return in the Bihar which was expired on 31-03-2018 for the Financial Year-2016-17." The petition in its present form is not maintainable, apart from it being deficient of particular materials. However, Tax Payers of Bihar faces 'unnatural inconvenience' in not filing income-tax returns within the stipulated period r....

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....re the court." 36. A considerable amount has been said about public interest litigation in R&M Trust [R&M Trust v. Koramangala Residents Vigilance Group, (2005) 3 SCC 91] and it is not necessary for us to dwell any further on this except to say that in issues pertaining to good governance, the courts ought to be somewhat more liberal in entertaining public interest litigation. However, in matters that may not be of moment or a litigation essentially directed against one organisation or individual (such as the present litigation which was directed only against Sadananda Gowda and later Jeevaraj was impleaded) ought not to be entertained or should be rarely entertained. Other remedies are also available to public spirited litigants a....

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....he following words: (SCC pp. 641-42, paras 24-25) "24. ... The powers of the High Court under Article 226 are not strictly confined to the limits to which proceedings for prerogative writs are subject in English practice. Nevertheless, the well-recognised rule that no writ or order in the nature of a mandamus would issue when there is no failure to perform a mandatory duty applies in this country as well. Even in cases of alleged breaches of mandatory duties, the salutary general rule, which is subject to certain exceptions, applied by us, as it is in England, when a writ of mandamus is asked for, could be stated as we find it set out in Halsbury's Laws of England (3rd Edn.), Vol. 11, p. 106: '198. Demand for performan....