ORDER :

Sujoy Paul, J.

1. This petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India takes exception to the order dated 23.12.2021 in F.No.DCIT-1(1)/AAACB8316K/A.Y.2015-16/2021-22, whereby the application preferred by the petitioner under Section 154 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (Act), was dismissed by assigning certain reasons.

2. The pivotal question before us is that when an assessee erroneously or as a mistake of law, admittedly paid tax on more than one occasion, and claims its refund under Section 154 of the Act, whether such application can be rejected by holding that such mistake does not fall within the ambit of ‘error apparent on the face of record’.

Background facts:

3. The admitted facts between the parties are that the petitioner filed his returns for Assessment Year 2015-16. In the said return, he has paid tax relating to ‘retention money’, which money was actually paid to him by the Government in the Assessment Years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. The petitioner as an oversight again paid the tax on that ‘retention money’ in the Assessment Years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. After having realised that he has paid tax twice, he preferred an application under Section