HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT

All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultant v. Union of India

Section 139 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 – Return of income – General – Petitioner filed petition praying for quashing of Notification No. SO 762(E), dated 14-5-2007 introducing new Forms for purpose of filing tax returns and staying implementation of said notification till disposal of petition – Petitioner submit­ted that new tax return Forms introduced by said notification are so complicated that it is impossible for a genuine taxpayer to file returns with supporting details – Whether in view of fact that about 6,77,330 taxpayers out of about 25 lakhs have already filed their tax returns, as per new return Forms by 29-7-2007, contention canvassed by petitioner could not be accepted – Held, yes

Facts

The petitioner filed the instant petition praying for quashing of the Notification No. SO 762(E), dated 14-5-2007 introducing new Forms for the purpose of filing tax returns and staying the implementation of the said notification, till the disposal of petition. The petitioner submitted that new tax return Forms are so compli­cated that it is impossible for a genuine tax-payer to file the returns with supporting details. The petitioner from the submitted that any there was some defect in the Form, or a wrong information was found to be given, such Forms, would not we accepted by the Department.

Held

In view of the fact that about 6,77,330 taxpayers out of about 25 lakhs have already filed their tax returns as per new return Forms by 29-7-2007, the contention sought to be canvassed by the petitioner could not be accepted. [Para 5]

The petitioner had further brought to notice that if there was some defect in the Form, or a wrong information was found to be given, such Forms, would not be accepted by the department. [Para 6]

As regards the second contention, the Court direct the department to accept the return Forms which are submitted by the taxpayers, sub­ject to a genuine difficulty. After acceptance of those return Forms, on scrutiny if it is found by the concerned officer that there is no genuine difficulty on the part of the taxpayer in giving the details required in various columns, those Forms may finally be treated as not filed as required, and they will be subject to final decision taken by the concerned officer. Howev­er, it is also made clear that if under the rules no Annexures are required to be attached then no Annexures shall be attached to the return Form. [Para 7]

Being not satisfied by the decision of the concerned officer, the assessee will have to challenge the order of the concerned authority by way of petition individually. [Para 8]

The petition would stand dispose of with the said direction.