THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.SAM KOSHY AND THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE NARSING RAO NANDIKONDA W.P.No.34881 & 34900 OF 2023 COMMON ORDER : (per Hon’ble Sri Justice P.Sam Koshy)

Heard Mr. A.V.Siva Kartikeya, learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms. B.Sapna Reddy, learned Junior Standing Counsel representing Mr.J.V.Prasad, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the Income Tax Department. Perused the record.

2. Since the issue in both the writ petitions is common, we intend to dispose of both the writ petitions by a common order and the lead case is being treated as W.P.No.34881 of 2023.

3. The instant writ petition has been filed seeking for a direction to the respondents to consider and decide the application filed by the petitioner under Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short ‘the Act’) dated 10.04.2021.

4. The contention of the petitioner was that the return was to be filed within the extended period of time i.e., 31.10.2019. However, because of the fact that the petitioner was not provided with the State audit report by the Auditors, the return could not be filed and the return was filed only on 06.01.2020 after the audit report was received by the petitioner on 07.11