Emphasising that technology is only meant for assistance and data processing, and not for adjudication of cases, the Supreme Court said that the directions of the High Court have nothing to do with the case on merits and will not affect the taxpayer (respondent). Accordingly, the Court quashed the direction issued by the High Court for making changes in the software.
The judgment was passed in an appeal by the Revenue Department challenging the directions given by the High Court while granting relief to the taxpayer (respondent) on merits, whereby the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was directed to make changes in the software so that no demand is raised in future in similar cases.
A Two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Vijay Bishnoi observed considered the arguments by the Additional Solicitor General that unless the Assessing Officer comes to know about the facts of the case regarding deduction of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) by the person paying the amount to the taxpayer, the liability cannot be waived of.
The Bench also considered the argument that it is only in case any TDS has been deducted from the payments made to a taxpayer that he gets credit, despite the fact that the amount may not have been paid to the Department by the person who deducted the TDS.
For that, the Bench agreed that certain facts will always be required to be verified, and any change in the software will not even point out the cases to the Assessing Officer where there may be a wrong claim made regarding deduction of tax.
Therefore, acceding to the contentions that there can be other different factual situations, which may require manual examination after issuance of show cause notice to the taxpayer, the Bench disposed of the case.
Appearances:
ASG Raghavendra P Shankar, AOR Madhulika Upadhyay, along with Advocates Karan Lahiri, Bhuvan Kapoor, Udit Dedhiya, and Shashank Bajpai, for the Appellant/ Revenue
None, for the Respondent/ Taxpayer
