"Genuine hardship"- Is this a ground to claim relief under income-tax laws?

The legislative intent behind granting the power to overlook procedural delays is to ensure that cases are resolved based on their actual merits, promoting fair justice.

- Adv Sherry Samuel Oommen

A. Introduction

The Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter “the Act”) is a comprehensive law that governs income taxation. Under the Act, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (hereinafter “Board”), is authorised to create policies, guidelines, and rules to guarantee its proper execution. A key provision in the Act is Section 119(2)(b), which gives the Board the authority to lessen the severity of tax regulations, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions.

Notably, the Act empowers certain income tax authorities to condone delay under Section 119(2) (b). In the recent past, delays in filing audit report (for instance) have resulted in trusts being denied the exemption claimed under various provisions of the Act. Sadly, owing to lack of knowledge regarding remedial provisions in the Act, charitable institutions are mulcted with recovery notices leading to unnecessary stress. In this article, I intend to delve on a key provision contained in the Act, which could turn out to be a lifeline in addressing procedural delays.

B. Introduction

To understand the issue at hand, it would be profitable to extract the provisions of Section 119(2)(b) of the Act, which states as follows:

“the Board may, if it considers it desirable or expedient so to do for avoiding genuine hardship in any case or class of cases, by general or special order authorize any income-tax authority, not being a Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or a Commissioner (Appeals) to admit an application or claim for any exemption, deduction, refund or any other relief under this Act after the expiry of the period specified by or under this Act for making such application or claim and deal with the same on merits in accordance with law". (emphasis supplied)

C. Understanding the term “genuine hardship” – A snapshot