2022 (2) TMI 1463 - HC - Income Tax

Revision petition filed by the Petitioner u/s 264 dismissed on the ground of limitation - Petitioner under the bona fide mistake of law and relying on previous orders passed by ITO and CIT(A) filed an appeal u/s 248 under the belief that the said order is appealable - As stated that the Petitioner meticulously pursued the said appeal until June, 2019. Petitioner states that the Petitioner came to know that the said appeal is not maintainable as the Petitioner had not paid the tax determined in the order passed under Section 195(2) and immediately thereafter, without wasting any time, withdrew the appeal vide letter dated 07 th June, 2019 and filed a Revision Petition under Section 264 of the Act within four days HELD THAT - In the opinion of this Court, Section 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963 is attracted to the facts of the present case and the Petitioner is entitled to exclusion of time spent in prosecuting the proceeding bona fide in a Court without jurisdiction. This Court is of the view that if the time spent by the Petitioner in prosecuting the appeal under Section 248 of the Act is excluded, then the Revision Petition filed under Section 264 would be within time. Consequently, the present writ petition is allowed and the matter is remanded to the CIT(IT) to decide the Revision Petition on merit in accordance with law. This Court clarifies that it has not commented on the merit of the controversy. The rights and contentions of all the parties are left open.

Summary

The High Court allowed exemption in C.M.No. 9141/2022 and disposed of the application. In W.P.(C) 3137/2022, the Court remanded the matter to CIT(IT) to decide the Revision Petition on merit, stating that the time spent in prosecuting the appeal under Section 248 of the Act should be excluded for determining the timeliness of the Revision Petition under Section 264.