Section 201(1) first proviso — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section 201(1) first proviso, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Kohinoor Educational Services v Union of India
High CourtHelps departmentValidity unconfirmed
My payee refuses to sign the accountant's certificate for Form 26A. Can I get a writ compelling him to issue it?
No, not where the records the certificate must rest on no longer exist. The deductor wanted a mandamus against the Airports Authority of India to issue the accountant's certificate in Annexure A to Form 26A under rule 31ACB, so as to bring itself within the first proviso to section 201(1) and escape disallowance under section 40(a)(ia). The Authority's answer was that its records for the period before April 2013 had been lost in floods in 2015 and could not be retrieved from the legacy system after migration. The Delhi High Court held that a mandamus enforces a clear legal right and a corresponding public duty, and does not lie to command an authority to issue a factual certification when the records on which such a certification must rest are not there. Replies under the Right to Information showing that returns had been filed did not fill the gap, because proof that a return was filed is not proof that a particular receipt from a particular payer was accounted for in it. The review petition was dismissed.
Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.