Law: Income Tax Act, 1961

Section: 139,217273A

Income-tax---Advance tax---Return---Interest---Failure to file estimate of advance tax--¬Delay in filing returns---Reduction or waiver of interest---Section 273A does not lay down time within which return must be filed---Power to reduce or waive interest is discretionary but power must be exercised judiciously--¬Assessee filing returns voluntarily for first time for several years including years for which assessment was barred by limitation---Tax paid on self ¬assessment---Admission by CIT that all conditions laid down in S.273A had been fulfilled---Assessee entitled to get 100 percent. relief from interest livable under Ss.139(8) & 217---Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, Ss. 139, 217 273A. The power granted to the Commissioner under section 273A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, is discretionary. A perusal of the section goes to show that if he is satisfied that the assessee has voluntarily and in good faith made full and true disclosure of his income or that it was so made prior to the detection by the Officer of the concealment of particulars of income or of the inaccuracy of particulars furnished in respect of such income or that it has been made prior to the issue of a notice to him under subsection (2) of section 139 and also that the assessee has in all the cases referred to above cooperated in any enquiry relating to the assessment of his income and has either paid or made satisfactory arrangements for -the payment of any tax or interest payable in consequence of an order passed under this Act, he can reduce or waive the amount of penalty or interest imposed. Although the power under section 273A is a discretionary power that has to be used judiciously and not arbitrarily. Section 273A does not say that the return should have been filed on or before a particular date to get the benefit of the section: Held, that in the case on hand all these petitioners had filed the return voluntarily not only for the year 1984-85 but also from 1978-79 to 1983-84 i.e., even for the years for which limitation was over. They had paid the entire tax on self-assessment. The Commissioner of Income-tax had also admitted that all the conditions laid down under section 273A(1) were…

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