Nirzari Amitbhai Mehta Vs PCIT (Gujarat High Court)
Gujarat High Court held that application filed u/s. 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act should be considered without adopting any pedantic technical approach. Accordingly, belated return filing permitted by exercising powers u/s. 119(2)(b).
Facts- The petitioner is an individual and citizen of India and as such she is entitled to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India.
It is the case of the petitioner that the draft return of income for the A.Y. 2022-23 was prepared whereby she is entitled to refund of Rs.52,592/- on the total income of Rs.4,55,290/- as on account of the tax deducted at source from dividend, interest income.
The petitioner’s income tax return was filed by the learned advocate for the petitioner for many years; however, due to inadvertent delay, as such the return could not be filed for the Assessment Year 2022-23.
The petitioner therefore, preferred an application u/s. 119(2)(b) of the Act relying upon the Circular No.9/2015 dated 09.06.2015 issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The respondent however, rejected the application filed by the petitioner on the ground that the petitioner has not provided any proof to prove the genuineness of the hardship she had faced in not filing the return of income as per Para-5 of the Circular No.9/2015.
