Delay in Filing ITR Allowed due to Dispute with Auditor : High Court

Delay in Filing ITR due to Dispute with Auditor

Facts of the case

Assessee-company could not file return of income under section 139(1) before due date on account of some misunderstanding between erstwhile auditor and assessee .

The assessee's case was that the auditor was delaying the process of audit completion without proper reasons. The assessee thus wanted to appoint an alternative auditor but same was not possible without obtaining No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the existing auditor

According to assessee, its existing auditor did not give NOC even after repeated requests were made. Later on, when assessee finally obtained NOC from 'R', it appointed another auditor 'C'. It was only after obtaining audit report from new auditor, assessee filed its return of income with a delay of 37 days.

The assessee's application for condonation of such delay was rejected by the first respondent (CBDT).

Decision of High Court

As contended by the assessee, it could not be blamed for the delay in carrying out its audit, as the same is beyond its control.

Since the assessee has satisfactorily explained the reasons for the delay in a proper manner, the CBDT should have condoned the delay of 37 days in filing the return of income along with the audit report.