Rajalingam Nagarathinam Vs PCIT (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court directs appellate Commissioner to condone the delay in filing of an appeal and consider that the petitioner cannot be left without any remedy, as there are prima facie indications of a mistake in not filing Form 67 as required under Rule 128 of the Income Tax Rule, 1962.
Facts- The petitioner, an Indian citizen, was employed during the financial year 2023-2024 partly in India and partly in Netherland. Therefore, he received the salary in India and in Netherland during the period while he served in the respective Countries. The petitioner had filed his income tax returns. However, he failed to file Form 67 as is required under Rule 128 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, for bifurcating the income earned in India and in Netherland. The petitioner’s return was accepted and an intimation was sent to the petitioner on 05.07.2022 u/s. 143 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, wherein, the petitioner was found fault for not filing Form 67 in time and therefore, he was held liable to pay the tax for a sum of Rs.1,05,030/-.
Conclusion- Held that the petitioner cannot be left without any remedy, as there are prima facie indications of a mistake in not filing Form 67 as required under Rule 128 of the Income Tax Rule, 1962. The powers are available to the appellate Commissioner to condone the delay under Section 249 (3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in filing appeal. Considering the fact that the petitioner has also pursued an alternate remedy though by mistake under Section 264 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, applying the Principle under Section 14 of the Limitation Act, the petitioner would be entitled for condonation of the delay. Thus, I am inclined to dispose of this writ petition by directing the petitioner to challenge the intimation, dated 05.07.2022 issued under Section 143 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 before the appellate Commissioner within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. In case, such an appeal is filed before the appellate authority within such time, the appellate authority shall consider the same and dispose of the same on merits on its turn.
