Tarik Handa Vs ITO (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court considered a writ petition challenging an intimation/order dated 19.03.2025, reflected through a screenshot, by which the petitioner’s application under the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 was rejected.
The petitioner contended that no copy of the rejection order had been supplied or served upon him. It was only after making queries that he was informed that the Competent Authority had rejected his application on the ground that no assessment order was in existence on the date the application under the Scheme was filed.
The petitioner submitted that he had earlier filed W.P.(C) 2370/2023, in which the High Court had passed an interim order dated 24.02.2023. Under that interim order, the Assessing Officer was permitted to continue with the reassessment proceedings. However, if any assessment order adverse to the petitioner was passed, such order was directed not to be given effect to.
According to the petitioner, this interim direction led the Competent Authority to conclude that no assessment order existed on the date the application under the Scheme was filed.
The High Court noted that the petitioner had subsequently withdrawn the earlier writ petition. It observed that, technically or “hyper technically speaking,” the Competent Authority’s view might appear correct, but legally and purposively it was not. The Court held that, on the date when the application under the Scheme was filed, an assessment order had already been passed. The only restriction flowing from the interim order dated 24.02.2023 was that the assessment order could not be given effect to.
