Income Tax | Manual Filing Of Appeal By NRI Valid For DTVSV Scheme Benefits: Gujarat High Court

Justices Bhargav D. Karia and Pranav Trivedi were addressing the case where the petitioner/assessee has challenged the communication issued by the respondent authorities, whereby the declaration made by the assessee under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 ('DTVSV Scheme, 2024'), is rejected on the ground that the appeal filed by the assessee was invalid.

In this case, the assessee/petitioner preferred an application under the provisions of the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, as the assessee had challenged the assessment order for the Assessment Year 2012-13 by preferring an appeal in Form No.35 manually.

As the assessee is a Non-Resident Indian and was not having an Aadhar number linked with PAN, so as to file an appeal online as per the provisions of Rule 45 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962.

Assessment proceedings were carried out pursuant to the reopening of the assessment under Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The assessee also received a deficiency memo in respect of the appeal preferred by the assessee on the ground that tax on the return income was not paid, or particulars of payment were not mentioned by the assessee.

The assessee filed Form No.1 under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, on the basis of the pending appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), which was filed by the assessee on 04.06.2020. According to the assessee, the appeal was pending on the specified date i.e. 22.07.2024.

The assessee requested the respondent to accept the Form No.1 under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, as the appeal was pending on 22.07.2024, which is the specified date under the scheme, on which the proceedings had to be pending to avail the benefits of the scheme.

However, the Form No.1 filed by the assessee under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024 was rejected.

The assessee submitted that, as per the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, only proceedings are required to be pending as on 22.07.2024, and authorities could not have gone into the validity of the pending appeal.

The department submitted that the appeal filed by the assessee was not in accordance with Rule 45 as amended by the Income Tax (Amendment) Rules 2016, effective from 01.03.2016, as the assessee did not file the appeal online.

The bench opined that the respondent authority was not justified in rejecting the declaration in Form No.1 filed by the assessee under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024, on the ground that the appeal filed by the assessee was an invalid appeal as the same was not filed as per Rule 45 of the Rules.

The bench quashed the impugned communication displayed on the portal of the department, rejecting the declaration in Form No.1 filed by the assessee/petitioner under the DTVSV Scheme, 2024.

In view of the above, the bench allowed the petition.

Case Title: Tejal Mayur Rao v. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax & Ors.

Case Number: R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 7839 of 2025

Counsel for Petitioner/Assessee: Hiren J Trivedi

Counsel for Respondent/Department: Varun K. Patel and Maithili D Mehta

Click Here To Read/Download The Order