Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With Delay Condonation In Income Tax Dept's Appeal Against IFUNA

The Delhi High Court had on March 24, 2026 condoned the delay observing that though the delay was substantial and not properly explained, a “lenient view in the interest of justice” was required

A Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Manmohan said it found no 'good' ground to interfere and dismissed the Special Leave Petition challenging the condonation order passed by the High Court.

“We do not find a good ground to interfere with the impugned order/judgment in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. Accordingly, the special leave petitions stand dismissed.”

The dispute arose from an order dated December 15, 2022 passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in favour of IFUNA, whereby the Tribunal set aside the revisionary order passed under Section 263 of the Income Tax Act. The Revenue thereafter filed an appeal before the Delhi High Court with substantial delay.

Before the High Court, the assessee opposed condonation, contending that the actual delay in filing was 208 days and not 154 days as claimed by the Department. It was argued that the Revenue had incorrectly computed limitation from the date of receipt of the ITAT order instead of the date of pronouncement and had failed to furnish any satisfactory explanation for the prolonged delay and subsequent delay in re-filing.

The Department relied on administrative processing, scrutiny of the matter and preparation of the appeal as reasons for the delay.

The Court consequently condoned a 154 days' delay in filing and 112 days' delay in re-filing the appeal and admitted the Revenue's appeal on substantial questions of law relating to Section 263 proceedings.

For Petitioner: Senior Advocate Pallav Sisodia, Surjendu Sankar Das, AOR, Advocate Annie Mittal