All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants Vs Central Board of Direct Taxes (Gujarat High Court)
Brief of the case:
By this petition under article 226 of Constitution of India petitioners sought relief by way of writ and prayed before court that due date of filing ITR should be extended upto 30.11.2015. Following relief were sought in this instant writ petition:
A) All alteration/ changes made in the necessary form to file ITR should be applicable in the AY in which they are made and not in the current AY.
B) To quash the announcement dated 09/09/2015 being illegal as it promotes the filing of ITR without the mandatorily required TAR.
C) To give appropriate direction to the respondents to extend the due date for filing the ITR and TAR to 30/11/2015.
Hon’ble HC after considering the facts and circumstances and decision rendered by other high courts on the same subject directed respondents to extend the due date of fling ITRs and TAR to 31.10.2015.
Facts of the case:
- The first petitioner is a Trust registered under the provisions of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 and has over 1000 members who are various professionals, being Advocates, Chartered Accountants and Tax Practitioners engaged in the field of taxation. The second petitioner is the President of the first petitioner Federation and is also assessee who is directly interested in the subject matter of the petition.
- By a notification dated 01.05.2013 the first respondent made it mandatory for the assessees, to electronically file the income tax returns relevant for assessment year 2013-14 and onwards.
- In relation to assessment year 2014-15, the respondents failed to make the utility software for filing TAR until 21st August, 2014. Representations were made to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which in exercise of powers under section 119 of the Act extended the due date for filing the Tax Audit Report (TAR) under section 44AB to 30.11.2014, however due for filing ITR was not extended.
- In relation to the AY 2015-16, the Department delayed notifying the ITR forms being ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-2A, ITR-4S but extended the due date for filing the income tax returns to 31.07.2015 in the case of such assesseeson which TAR is not applicable.
- The on-line forms in relation to assessees subject to tax audit and other assessees, viz., Forms ITR-3, ITR- 4, ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 in relation to assessment year 2015- 16 came to be notified on 29.7.2015 and the forms were e-enabled and were available on the e-filing website of the Department only from 7th August, 2015.
- Since the income tax returns in case of such assessees were to be filed on or before 30.09.2015, according to the petitioners the delay in making the form available caused utter confusion and chaos amongst the Chartered Accountants and the assessees.
- Several stake holders have made several representations to the CBDT and the Central Government to extend the due date for filing the income tax returns from 30.09.2015 to 30.11.2015 but no result came out as no due date was extended.
- On the contrary by an announcement dated 9th September, 2015 the Government of India Ministry of Finance, it was stated that a decision had been taken that the last date of filing of returns due by 30th September, 2015 will not be extended.
- The petitioners, therefore, made representations to the CBDT for extending the due date of filing return to 30th November, 2015, but to no avail. Hence petitioners filed instant writ petition.
Contention of the revenue:
