TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (10) TMI 704
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....5 issued by the respondent-authorities, whereby the declaration made by the petitioner under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 (for short 'DTVSV Scheme, 2024'), is rejected on the ground that appeal filed by the petitioner was invalid. [4] Brief facts of the case are as under: [4.1] The petitioner preferred an application under the provisions of the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, as the petitioner had challenged the assessment order for the Assessment Year 2012-13 by preferring an appeal in Form No.35 manually, as the petitioner is a Non-Resident Indian and was not having Aadhar number linked with PAN, so as to prefer an appeal online as per the provisions of Rule 45 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 (for short 'the Rules'). [4.2] Assessment proceedings were carried out pursuant to the reopening of the assessment under Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act') by making an addition of Rs. 32,71,000/- under Section 69A of the Act. [4.3] The petitioner also received deficiency memo in respect of the appeal preferred by the petitioner on 28.04.2023 on the ground that tax on return income was not paid or particulars of payment was not mentioned by the petiti....
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....pal Commissioner of Income Tax, in SCA Nos. 10560 and 10784 of 2025 dated 08.09.2025. [7] On the other hand, learned Senior Standing Counsel Mr. Varun Patel submitted that the appeal filed by the petitioner was not in accordance with Rule 45 as amended by the Income Tax (Amendment), Rules 2016 effective from 01.03.2016, as the petitioner did not file appeal online. It was, therefore, submitted that the respondent - authorities have rightly rejected the Form No. 1 filed by the petitioner under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024 as the appeal filed by the petitioner was not valid as on 22.07.2024. [8] Having considered the submissions made by the learned advocates for the respective parties and having perused the material on record, it would be germane to refer to the provisions of the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, which has come into effect by Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024. As per Chapter VI of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, Section 88 to Section 99 pertains to the 'DTVSV Scheme, 2024' for dispute resolution in respect of pending income tax litigation and to reduce the pending tax litigation in order to generate timely revenue for Government and benefit the tax payers by providing them peace of mind, c....
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....appeal on 22.07.2024 is yet to be disposed of, though appeal would have been disposed of on merits or otherwise. [12] This Court in case of Tushar Agro Chemicals Vs. Principal Commissioner of Income-Tax-1 reported in (2022) 441 ITR 179 (Gujarat) and in case of Atul Roshanlal Gupta Vs. Principal Commissioner of Income-Tax reported in (2024) 167 taxmann.com 634 (Gujarat), has in similar circumstances while considering the similar Scheme called "Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme", held that even if the appeal is filed with a delay, it is to be treated as pending on the specified date. [13] In case of Neelaben Ghanshyambhai Parmar (supra), after considering the above decisions of this Court, it is held as under: "19. Having considered the rival submissions made by learned advocates for the respective parties, it would be germane to refer to the relevant provisions of the DTVSV Scheme, 2024 as contained in sections 88 to 99 in Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 as under: "89. (1) in the Scheme, unless the context otherwise requires- (l) "last date" means such date as may be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette." (n) "specified date" means t....
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....d and appeals, revisions and references were put on par under section 95(i)(c) of the Scheme. The object behind section 95(i)(c) in putting on par appeals, references and revisions was to put an end to litigation in various forms and at various stages under the IT Act/Wealth Tax Act and, therefore, the rulings on the scope of appeals and revisions under the IT Act or on Voluntary Disclosure Scheme, will not apply to this case. 15. In the case of Dr. Mrs. Renuka Delta (supra), this Court has held on interpretation of section 95(i) (c) that if the appeal or revision is pending on the date of the filing of the declaration under section 88 of the Scheme, it is not for the DA to hold that the appeal/revision was "sham", "ineffective" or "infructuous" as it has. 16. In the case of Raja Kulkarni v. The State of Bombay reported in AIR 1954 SC 73, this Court laid down that when a section contemplates pendency of an appeal, what is required for its application is that an appeal should be pending and in such a case there is no need to introduce the qualification that it should be valid or competent. Whether an appeal is valid or competent is a question entirely for the appel....
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....ified date as per the VSV Act. 7.1 It is also pertinent to note that when the petitioner has filed declaration under the VSV Act to claim the benefit of the Scheme, the Tribunal had already recalled the order dated 26th March, 2019 and therefore, the appeal preferred by the petitioner before the Tribunal was pending as on 31st January, 2020. 7.2 In view of the above facts, it cannot be said that no appeal was pending as on 31st January, 2020 when the petitioner filed the application/declaration under the provisions of the Scheme in view of order dated 03rd September, 2020 passed by the Tribunal in Miscellaneous Application No.75/Ahd/2020 preferred by the petitioner to recall order dated 26th March, 2019 whereby appeal of the petitioner was dismissed for non-prosecution." 8. Considering the above facts, the impugned action of the respondent authority of rejecting the declaration filed by the petitioner is not tenable and accordingly, the same is quashed and set aside. The respondent authority is directed to consider and process the declaration filed by the petitioner under the provisions of the VSV Act within a period of 12 weeks from the date of receipt o....