Beneficial tax amnesty schemes should not be denied to assessees due to minor technical delays in payment where the assessee has demonstrated earnest and timely efforts to comply with the statutory requirements.

JUDGMENT

The petitioner is an assessee under the provisions of the Income Tax Act. The grievance of the petitioner highlighted in this writ petition is against the rejection of application of the petitioner for the benefits of Sabka Vishwas Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme, 2019 (SVLDRS 2019) notified as per the Finance Act, 2019 for the purpose of settling the dispute relating to the assessment of Income Tax Act.

2. As per Ext.P1, the petitioner availed the benefit of settlement scheme and the amount payable by the petitioner was determined as Rs.34,89,475.50/-. In response to the same, the petitioner generated a challan on 27.06.2020 (Ext.P2) and to effect the payment based on the same, issued a cheque dated 30.06.2020 (Ext.P3) for the said amount. The bank has issued the counter foil for the lodgment on 30.06.2020 itself. However, later, on verification it was seen that the debit of the amount happened only on 01.07.2020 and immediately thereafter the same was re-credited to the account of the petitioner by showing technical error.

3. The petitioner immediately raised a grievance as evidenced by Ext.P5, highlighting reversal of the said amount and in response to the same, the petitioner was informed that, as the last date for payment expired on 30.06.2020, the same cannot be accepted. It was in these circumstances, this writ petition is filed seeking the following reliefs:

“A. Issue a writ of mandamus or such writ, order or direction directing the 2^nd respondent to allow the petitioner to make payment in terms of Exhibit P2 declaration electronically or manually; and B. Issue a writ of mandamus or such writ, order or direction directing the 3^rd respondent issue a discharge certificate in Form SVLDRS-4 on the petitioner being permitted to make payments in terms of Exhibit P2 declaration.

C. Issue writ of Certiorari quashing Exhibit P1 show-cause notice.”

4. After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for the respondents, I find that the denial of the benefits of the amnesty scheme due to technical error is not proper. This is particularly because, it is discernible from Exts.P2, P3, P4 and P5 that the petitioner had availed the benefit and made all efforts to affect the payment within the cut off date of 30.06.2020. Ext.P2 is the challan generated for the purpose and Ext.P3 is the cheque issued in this regard. However, the same has been returned and amount debited from the account of the petitioner was seen re-credited on the reason that, by the time the transfer took place, the period expired. As mentioned above, Exts.P2 and P3 would indicate that the petitioner had taken all earnest efforts to ensure the payment of the amount from the account of the petitioner. Therefore, as the said steps taken by the petitioner for payment was within the time stipulated for availing the benefit of the settlement scheme, I do not find any justification in denying the same to the petitioner merely because of the reason that, despite the instruction of the petitioner, the debit actually occurred only after the expiry of some hours of the last date fixed for the said purpose. Since it is a beneficial scheme for the assessee, it is the duty of the respondent to ensure that the same are availed by the eligible assessees to the extent possible and the denial of the same can be made only in exceptional circumstances, where there are serious lapses on the part of the assessees in availing the same. In this case, I do not find any justifiable reason to deny the benefit of the settlement scheme to the petitioner as the petitioner had taken all earnest efforts to make the payment within the period stipulated and the delay occurred due to technical reasons.

In such circumstances, th