DTVSV 2020

DTVSV 2020 — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section DTVSV 2020, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Manohar Lal Poddar v Union of India High CourtHelps taxpayer
  Two years after Form 5 the Assessing Officer has issued a section 154 notice saying the tax on my settled additions was computed at the wrong rate. Can he reopen a completed Vivad se Vishwas settlement?
  No. Section 154(1)(a) allows an income-tax authority to amend an order passed by it under the Income-tax Act, 1961; the certificate issued by the designated authority under section 5 of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 is not such an order. The Patna High Court set aside both the rectification order and the section 264 revision order upholding it, and directed the refund to be paid within four weeks with statutory interest.
• Ramasamy HUF v Pr. CIT-3 High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  I paid under the 2020 scheme but never filed Form 4, so no final certificate came, and my appeal was then dismissed as if I had settled. Can I come into the 2024 Scheme instead?
  Yes, on these facts. Under section 4(6) of the 2020 Act a declaration is presumed never to have been made where the declarant violates any condition of the Act, and in that event all proceedings and claims withdrawn under section 4 are deemed revived. The Madras High Court held that once the Tribunal had set aside the CIT(A)'s order dismissing the appeal on the erroneous footing that the scheme had been availed, the appeal against the assessment order stood revived and alive, and directed the designated authority to accept Form 1 filed on 26 December 2024 and issue Form 2 under the 2024 Scheme.
• ACIT v Satwashil Vasant Mane High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  Form 5 was issued and a refund became due to me, but the department sat on it for two years and now refuses interest, citing section 7 of the 2020 Act. Can I get interest?
  Yes. The Kerala High Court held there is no absolute prohibition in the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 on a declarant claiming interest; what section 7 excludes is interest under section 244A of the Income-tax Act on the excess pre-declaration payment. Because section 5(2) obliges the declarant to pay within fifteen days, the department is equally bound to refund the excess within a reasonable time, and where the delay is solely the Revenue's fault the Court can award reasonable interest under section 3 of the Interest Act, 1978. The Revenue's writ appeal was dismissed.
• Prayas Buildwell Pvt Ltd v Pr. CIT-7 High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  The designated authority rejected my Form 1 saying there was no disputed tax because my own return was accepted, so my appeal was incompetent. Can it go into whether my appeal was maintainable?
  No. The Delhi High Court held that eligibility under the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 is not contingent on the merits of the maintainability of the appeal; all that matters is that an appeal in respect of disputed tax was pending before the CIT(A) or the Tribunal when the declaration was filed. The rejection was set aside and the authority directed to consider the declaration in accordance with the law as it stood on the date the declaration was filed.
• Ansaldo Energia SPA v DCIT High CourtCuts both waysValidity unconfirmed
  Can I get section 244A interest on the amounts the department adjusted against my Vivad se Vishwas liability, or refunded to me under the scheme?
  No. The Madras High Court held that the Explanation to section 7 of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 expressly denies a declarant interest under section 244A on the excess amount refunded, and that section 7 is a complete code — if the case is to be settled under the Act, no section 244A interest is available. Two of the four writ petitions were dismissed and the batch disposed of with directions.
• Boddu Ramesh v Designated Authority High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  My Tribunal appeal was more than a year late and the delay was condoned only in February 2021, well after CBDT's 4 December 2020 circular. The designated authority says FAQ 59 therefore cannot help me. Is that right?
  No. The Telangana High Court held that the 'deemed pendency' benefit in the answer to FAQ 59 cannot be confined to condonation applications filed on or before 4 December 2020; what matters is that the appeal was pending with a condonation application and had been admitted before the declaration was filed. Confining the benefit to that date would create a class of declarants without any reasonable basis and offend Article 14, and it would cut across the Board's own powers under sections 10 and 11 of the 2020 Act.
• Bhupendra Harilal Mehta v Pr. CIT High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  My Form 3 charges the higher search-case amount because the addition against me came out of a search on somebody else. Is mine a 'search case' under the 2020 scheme?
  Not on these facts. Row (b) of the Table to section 3 of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 applies only where the tax arrear includes tax, interest or penalty determined in an assessment made on the basis of a search under section 132 or a requisition under section 132A. The Bombay High Court set aside the Form 3 and directed a fresh Form 3 treating the assessee as a non-search case, applying CBDT Circular 4/2021 dated 23 March 2021, which replaced the answer to FAQ 70 of Circular 21/2020 and now requires three cumulative conditions.
• Shyam Sunder Sethi v Pr. CIT-10 High CourtHelps taxpayer
  My Vivad se Vishwas Form 1 was rejected because my CIT(A) appeal was filed late and the delay had still not been condoned on 31 January 2020. Was my appeal 'pending' for the 2020 scheme?
  Yes. An appeal is 'pending' within section 2(1)(a) of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 from the moment it is filed until it is disposed of; admission of the appeal is not the test. The Delhi High Court set aside the rejection and held that the answer to FAQ 59 of CBDT Circular 21/2020 — which required the limitation to have expired between 1 April 2019 and 31 January 2020, the condonation application to have been filed before 4 December 2020, and the appeal to have been admitted before the declaration — introduced conditions found nowhere in the Act.
• Pinnacle Vastunirman Pvt Ltd v Union of India High CourtHelps departmentValidity unconfirmed
  Can I go to the High Court now, before filing my Vivad se Vishwas declaration, because I am confident the department will reject it?
  No. The Bombay High Court found no good ground to entertain a writ petition filed on the apprehension that a declaration, if filed, may be rejected, and held the petition premature. It dismissed the petition, leaving it open to the petitioner to file a declaration under the scheme as per law if so advised.
• Dev Priya Products Pvt Ltd v DCIT ITATHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  I settled an earlier year under Vivad se Vishwas. The CIT(A) is now using that settlement to sustain a disallowance in a later year. Can he?
  No. The Explanation to section 5 of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 says in terms that making a declaration shall not amount to conceding the tax position, and that it is not lawful for the income-tax authority or the declarant to contend that either has acquiesced in the decision on the disputed issue by settling the dispute. The Tribunal held the CIT(A) could not impute the surrender made under the 2020 Act and sustain a disallowance of interest that was not itself part of the settlement, and allowed the appeals.

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.