Income Tax Return Filed After Delay Caused by Department Cannot Be Treated as "Non-Est" Under Section 139(1)

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....The HC held that the Tribunal erred in treating the ITR filed under Section 139(1) for AY 2002-2003 as "non-est." The Court found that the delay in filing the return was attributable to the department, which only supplied photocopies of seized materials on 05.07.2004, nearly two years after the search conducted on 04.09.2002. The Tribunal failed to examine the entire circumstances and improperly relied on the "non-est" finding, resulting in double taxation of the appellant through both regular and block assessment proceedings. The HC ruled that the financial consequences of the search, delayed release of materials, and subsequent return filing should be considered on their merits rather than based on the previous "non-est" observation. Appeal allowed.....