The Jaipur Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) said that manual filing of a Chartered Accountant-certified Form 26A rather than electronic filing is only a procedural lapse and cannot be a reason to refuse relief under the provisions of Section 201(1) of the Income Tax Act when the seller has earlier released the tax liability.
The taxpayer Rashmi Singh purchased an immovable property for Rs. 66,20,435 without deducting TDS at 1% under section 194-IA. The assessing officer considered her as an “assessee in default” and raised a total demand of Rs. 1,15,194, including TDS of Rs. 66,204 and interest of Rs. 48,990. The CIT(A) confirmed the demand.
It was undisputed that the seller had already fulfilled the tax liability, and the assessee had provided Form 26A, which was duly certified by a Chartered Accountant. However, the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) [CIT(A)] refused the relief because the form was submitted manually instead of electronically, as required under Rule 31ACB.
The representative of the taxpayer said that the defect was only procedural and the substantive requirement was fulfilled. The counsel of the revenue supported the orders of the lower authorities.
The two-member bench, Annapurna Gupta (Accountant Member) and Kuldip Singh (Judicial Member), said that, “When the assessee was show-caused by the AO for not deducting TDS on the amount of sale consideration paid by her, she has filed Form 26A manually/offline mode being ignorant of the rules that the same is required to be filed electronically. It is a settled principle of law that filing Form 26A manually and not electronically is a procedural lapse based on which the assessee cannot be penalised.”
The tribunal said that Form 26A specified that the seller had earlier released the tax obligation. Under the proviso to Section 201(1), it granted the taxpayer protection and deleted the demand and permitted the appeal.
| Case Title | Rashmi Singh Vs ITO |
| Case No. | ITA No: 694/JPR/2026 |
| For the Petitioner | Sh. Deepak Sharma |
| For the Respondents | Mrs. Aarti Rawat |
| Jaipur ITAT | Read Order |
