Income Tax Commissioner Empowered To Provide Relief To Assessee On Late Filing: Gujarat High Court Exempts Old Woman Who Failed To File ITR

The Gujarat High Court has granted relief to an 82-years old woman who failed to file her Income Tax Return on time owing to her ailments.

The Court was considering a Writ Petition challenging an order passed by the Authority under the provisions of Section 264 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and by the Respondent No.2, under Section 144 of the Income Tax Act,1961 along with the consequential demand notice under Section 156 of the Income Tax Act for the Assessment Year 2017-18. 

The division bench of Justice AS Supehia and Justice Pranav Trivedi held, "...in view of settled legal precedent, we are of the opinion that the Commissioner while exercising the powers under the provision of section 264 of the Income Tax Act , ought to have examined positively in favour of the petitioner without rejecting her application on technical grounds. However, we also find that the petitioner has also committed a mistake in not timely responding to the show cause notices and to provide the material. But, at the same time, her age and her ailment cannot be ignored."

The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Tushar Hemani while the Respondent was represented by Senior Standing Counsel Rutvij R Patel.

Facts of the Case

The Senior Advocate submitted that the Commissioner has failed to exercise his discretion as per the provisions of Section 264 of the Income Tax Act and has mainly placed reliance on the proceedings before the Assessing Officer for rejecting her Application under Section 264 of the Income Tax Act seeking revision of the assessment. He submitted that in fact, the Respondent–Commissioner should have examined the documentary evidence as well as the vital aspect of paying the tax of Rs.3,79,710/- for the Assessment Year 2017-18 along with the Audit Reports of the Assessment Year 2017-18. 

It was submitted that the petitioner is a senior citizen suffering from hyper tension, diabetes, type 2 depression Alzhemier disease from last seven years and due to ill health and inadvertence of her Accountant & Manager, she was unable to file a return of income for the Assessment Year 2017-18.

Reasoning By Court

The Court at the outset pointed out that the Audit Report which are placed on record and the other documents of return of income shows that the Petitioner has been regularly filing her return of income for the Assessment Years from 2014-15, 2015-16, 2018-19 and 2020-21, however, she was unable to file the return of income for the Financial Year 2017-18.

It also mentioned that she later paid tax of Rs.3,79,710/- in 2020 through Chalan and Audit Report of the Assessment Year 2017-18 were also enclosed

Reiterating that the power under Section 264 of the Income Tax Act is in fact a wide power and one that is intended to prevent miscarriage of justice, the Court was inclined to grant relief to the old woman.

The Court accordingly set-aside the impugned orders and remanded the matter back for re-assessment.

Cause Title: Shushilaben Jayantibhai Patel v. The Principal Commissioner Of Income Tax Vadodara (2025:GUJHC:64807-DB)

Appearances: 

Petitioner- Senior Advocate Tushar Hemani, Advocate Vaibhavi K Parikh

Respondent- Senior Standing Counsel Rutvij R Patel, Advocate Karan G Sanghani

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