- (1.) THIS writ petition has been filed against the order of the Commissioner of Income-tax rejecting the application filed by the petitioner under Section 273A of the Income-tax Act for waiving or reducing the amount of penalty imposed upon him.
(2.) THE petitioner was the assessee whose application has been rejected by the impugned order of the Commissioner on the ground that since the petitioner had not paid interest, the application was incompetent and was not maintainable. Section 273A did not entitle the Commissioner to reject the application simply because the petitioner had not made payment of interest. If an assessee makes arrangements for payment of interest, that would be a sufficient ground for consideration of the application on merits. In fact, the Commissioner did not apply his mind to the fact as to whether the petitioner had made arrangements for payment of interest or not inasmuch as he was of the view that since the petitioner had not paid the amount of interest, he would not be entitled to get the benefit of that section. That was not correct in law. In case the petitioner had made arrangements for payment of interest, he was entitled to the consideration of his application on merits. In the instant case, the petitioner did not state in the application for waiver moved on his behalf that he had made arrangements for payment of interest. Be that as it may, it appears to us that the requirements of Section 273A would be satisfied if we direct the petitioner to deposit the entire amount of interest in cash with the Income-tax Officer within one month from today. We order accordingly. Subject to the observations made by us, this writ petition is disposed of. Before passing this order, we have had the advantage of hearing Sri M. Katju.
(3.) A copy of this order shall be given to the counsel for the petitioner on payment of the requisite charges within 24 hours.;