Panaji: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Wednesday set aside an order passed by the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Panaji, rejecting the petitioner’s application under the ‘Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme’.
The High Court said that Section 5A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, treats income as a single community income belonging to the marital community, with assessment being mechanically apportioned.
It said that the petitioner and her husband were married under the communion of assets and were governed by the Portuguese Civil Code applicable to the state of Goa. In view of this, Section 5A of the Act applied to both the petitioner and her husband, and the income of the petitioner’s husband was apportioned, with 50 per cent attributed to the petitioner. “Once the assessment itself is challenged and settled for one spouse, the dispute cannot survive independently for the other, and the department cannot split
a single community income dispute into two for settlement purposes,” the court held.
Petitioner, Sharen Nitin Naik of Margao, under Article 226, had challenged the Commissioner’s March 12, 2021 order rejecting his application under the ‘Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme.’
The High Court said that the impugned order was factually incorrect and contrary to the provisions of the scheme itself.
The Court also said that the entire income was earned by the petitioner’s husband and that there was no dispute that both were governed by the provisions of Section 5A of the Act.
It said that the petitioner’s husband was assessed under the same assessment order and on the same disputed income governed by Section 5A. It noted that while the petitioner’s husband was granted the benefit of the scheme, the petitioner’s application was rejected by the impugned order.
