The Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) ruled that in the event the TDS amount is not reflected in Form 26AS, the refund of said TDS must still be provided if the taxpayer sufficiently furnishes the Form 16A certificates. Reference was made to the decision of the Delhi High Court in Court on Its Motion vs. Commissioner of Income Tax [Writ Petition (CIVIL) No. 2659 of 2012] as well as the Coordinate Bench in Rakesh Kumar Gupta vs. Union of India [Civil Misc. Writ Petition (Tax) No. 657 of 2013].
Asserting the responsibility of the AO to verify the amounts provided by the taxpayer (petitioner) through the proof of Form 16A, the Court concluded that the petitioner is entitled to receive a refund of the amounts once Form 16A was accepted by the Income Tax Authority.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Shekhar B. Saraf and Justice Prashant Kumar observed that a taxpayer should not be left at the mercy of an Assessing Officer who chooses to delay the payment of genuine refunds. Furthermore, as long as the taxpayer can provide documents proving that tax has been deducted at source, the same has to be accepted by the AO, who cannot insist that the amount match the figures in Form 26AS.
Briefly, the dispute in this case pertained to the tax deducted at source (TDS), which is claimed to be refundable to the petitioner, being a Cooperative Society exempt under Section 80P of the Income Tax Act. It was alleged that even after several applications for the refund were made, along with the relevant TDS certificates (Form 16A) filed with the Department, the Department is unwilling to issue the refund on the grounds that the TDS amount is not reflected in Form 26AS.
Cases Relied On:
Court on Its Motion vs. Commissioner of Income Tax [Writ Petition (CIVIL) No. 2659 of 2012]
Rakesh Kumar Gupta vs. Union of India [Civil Misc. Writ Petition (Tax) No. 657 of 2013]
Appearances:
Advocates Desh Deepak Chopra and Shailesh Verma, for the Petitioner/ Taxpayer
ASG D.K. Pathak, along with Advocates Kushagra Dikshit and Manish Mishra, for the Respondent/ Revenue
