The appeal is considered pending as soon as it is filed and does not require admission before the specified date under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020.

JUDGMENT

Rajiv Shakdher, J. - The petitioner is aggrieved by the fact that his application filed under the provisions of the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 (in short "2020 Act") has been rejected.

2. The backdrop in which the petitioner approached the designated authority under the 2020 Act is, broadly, set forth hereafter:

3. The petitioner had filed his income-tax return concerning the assessment year 2011-2012 on 12.05.2012. In the return, the petitioner had declared his income as Rs.49,32,900/-. The petitioner avers that in the said income-tax return, exemption had been claimed under Section 54 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short "1961 Act") and accordingly against "capital gains", the amount shown was "Nil".

4. The revenue, it appears, on 29.03.2018 issued a notice for reassessment under Section 148 of the Act, concerning the aforementioned assessment year.

4.1 In the reassessment proceedings, the exemption claimed by the petitioner under Section 54 of the 1961 Act was disallowed and the petitioner's income was recomputed. The income was, accordingly, assessed at Rs.3,08,94,767/-. This order was passed on 26.12.2018.

5. Being aggrieved, the petitioner preferred an appeal with respondent no. 3/CIT(A). The appeal along with the condonation of delay application was filed on 11.07.2019. Pertinently, the appeal was filed in the prescribed format which contained a provision for setting out the grounds for condonation of delay for cases where the appeal was not instituted within the stipulated timeframe.

6. On 01.02.2020, the Finance Bill, 2020 was introduced in the Parliament. Via the said Finance Bill, the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme (in short "Scheme") was introduced to resolve the pending disputes concerning income-tax payable by the assessees. The petitioner avers that it was, perhaps, in this background that he was sent an intimation dated 03.03.2020 by respondent no. 2 whereby he was informed that he could avail of the benefits under the 2020 Act.

7. On 17.03.2020, the 2020 Act received the assent of the President of India. Given the aforementioned development, the petitioner took the requisite steps under the 2020 Act to resolve his pending disputes with the revenue and to avail the benefits available thereunder.

7.1 Consequently, in consonance with the provisions of Section 3 read with Section 4(1) of the 2020 Act, the petitioner, on 12.06.2020, filed Form nos.1 and 2.

7.2 The forms having been filed, the petitioner followed it with a request, made to respondent no.1 on 21.08.2020, that the said forms be processed under the 2020 Act. Since there was no movement in the matter, the petitioner approached the Grievance Committee on 18.11.2020.

8. On 14.12.2020, the petitioner received a letter from respondent no.2 which inter alia conveyed the following.

"This is in reference to your VSVS form filed for A.Y. 2011-12. In this regard, you are requested to file condonation letter from CIT (Appeals) for granting condonation of delay in filling appeal before CIT (Appeals) as appeal was filed by you on 11.07.2019 i.e. after the due date of 30 days from the date of service of order. This is required to process your application under VSVS."

9. Surprisingly, on 27.01.2021, the petitioner appears to have received a letter from the Grievance Committee which inter alia indicated that the grievance articulated by him stood "fully resolved".

10. Because respondent no. 2 had, via communication dated 14.12.2020, raised an issue that the condonation of delay letter had not been filed with respondent no. 3, the petitioner submitted a communication, through his attorney, dated 01.01.2021, wherein, he averred that the appeal and the condonation of delay application (which, as indicated above, was part of the appeal) had been filed with respondent no.3 on 11.07.2019.

11. It is not in dispute that the petitioner's request for processing of forms filed under the 2020 Act was rejected on 28.01.2021. This information was uploaded on the web-portal maintai