( 1 ) IN this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner has prayed for a writ, direction or order of this Court quashing and setting aside the orders dated 9. 2. 1999 passed by the respondent-Commissioner of Income-tax, Rajkot rejecting the petitioners declarations under the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme for A. Ys. 1984-85 to 1991-92 and the petitioner has also prayed for a writ to direct the respondent to accept the petitioners declarations under the said Scheme and to pass necessary orders under the said Scheme as required by law.

( 2 ) THE petitioner is an individual who has landed properties and various sources of income assessable under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") as well as under the Wealth Tax Act. The petitioner was assessed to income-tax and wealth-tax for various years and on completion of the said assessments, certain tax liabilities arose. The petitioner was unable to discharge the said tax liabilities which also resulted in liability for interest and for penalty for non-payment of dues. The relevant years are A. Ys. 1984-85 to 1991-92. For some of these years, the petitioner had preferred First Appeals before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), but as the self-assessment tax under Section 140a was not paid, the appeals were not entertained by the said appellate authority in the years 1992 and 1993. For the other years, the petitioner had not preferred appeals.

( 3 ) THE Government of India promulgated the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme (hereinafter referred to as "the Scheme" or "the KVSS") through the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1998 as contained in Sections 86 to 98 of the said Act. The Scheme came into force from 1/09/1998 and remained in force till 31/12/1998 and extended till 31/01/1999.

( 4 ) THE petitioner filed revision applications under Section 264 of the Act before the Commissioner of Income-tax, Rajkot-respondent herein. All the said revision applications were filed in November/december, 1998. The relevant A. Ys. were A. Ys,1986-87 to 1991-92 for income-tax and A. Ys. 1984-85 and 1985-86 for wealth-tax. Since there was delay in filing the said revision applications, the petitioner applied for condonation of delay. After filing of the revision applications, the petitioner also applied for settlement of the tax dues under the aforesaid KVSS in respect of his liability for tax, interest and penalty under the Income-tax Act and also under the wealth-tax Act. The said applications were made on 28/2 9/12/1998. The details about the revision applications including the assessment year, the amount of tax involved, the amount of interest and penalty involved etc. are set out in a statement which is annexed to this judgment at Annexure "a". According to the petitioner, since the revision applications were filed before the respondent under Section 264 of the Act and the same were pending on the date of filing of declarations for the relevant years, the petitioners case was covered by the provisions of the KVSS.

( 5 ) ON 13/ 15/01/1999, the petitioner also filed appeals before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) or before the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal after 1/09/1998 in respect of A. Ys. 1980-81, 1981-82, and 1988-89 to 1993-94 in respect of the assessments under the Income-tax Act as well as under the Wealth-tax Act. The details about the appeals including the assessment year, the amount of tax involved, the amount of interest and penalty involved etc. are set out in a statement which is annexed to this judgment at Annexure "b". After filing the appeals, in the last week of January 1999 the petitioner also filed declarations under the KVSS in respect of the assessment years which were the subject matter of those appeals.

( 6 ) BY his orders dated 15/22/ 23/02/1999 and 5/03/1999, the respondent acting as the Designated Authority under the KVSS accepted the petitioners declarations which were filed in pending appeals in respect of the above assess