The Delhi High Court has turned down a petition challenging a decision to deny a request for extra time to submit an updated Income Tax Return (ITR). The bench stated that the nine-month delay in filing the revised return was too huge and that the applicant did not deliver an adequate explanation to justify the same.
The applicant, Sanjay Khurana, contested an order on 05.08.2025 from the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (PCIT). The application of the applicant had been dismissed by the PCIT u/s 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which asked for the condonation for the nine-month delay in filing the revised ITR for the Assessment Year 2021-22.
Mr Neeraj Yadav, the counsel of the applicant, claimed that the original return submitted dated 10.02.2022 has an error, incorrectly categorising a business loss as a speculative loss.
He claimed that the late filing of the revised return on 22.12.2022 was because of the time taken to pursue the fresh recommendation and compounded by the COVID-19 situation. He mentioned that the status of the applicant as a non-resident Indian was a contributing factor.
In the order of the PCIT, it rejected these claims, citing that the e-filing portal was accessible globally and the applicant had managed to submit the original return in the specified time, refusing the claim of insufficient opportunity.
PCIT also mentioned that the ignorance of law or reliance on an advisor is not regarded as sufficient cause and that no genuine hardship was determined, as the claim of the taxpayer itself was not substantiated in a report via CIT(IT)-2, New Delhi.
The Court, consisting of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Vinod Kumar, agreed with the findings of the PCIT and was not convinced by the petitioner’s arguments.
The bench commented that a nine-month delay is a “significant period” and noted that the applicant, as the President of a Trust operating a hospital, is expected to have a good understanding of tax laws.
Read Also: Bombay HC: Delay in Filing ITR Due to CA’s Advice Does Not Constitute Assessee’s Negligence
The claim was dismissed by the court, which is pertinent to the applicant’s NRI status, citing that the e-portal was accessible globally, a fact established via the timely filing of the original return. The court did not discover any merit in the petition and thus dismissed the same, keeping the order of the income tax authorities.
| Case Title | Sanjay Khurana vs. Income Tax Department, Ministry of Finance |
| Case No. | W.P.(C) 17379/2025 |
| For Petitioner | Mr Neeraj Yadav, Ms Shreya Sethi |
| For Respondent | Mr Shlok Chandra, Ms Naincy Jain, and Ms Madhavi Shukla |
| Delhi High Court | Read Order |
