NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Wednesday questioned the Centre and Income Tax (I-T) authorities why it was mandatory to link/quote Aadhaar for online filing of income tax returns ( ITR ) when the deadline had been extended.

A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and AK Chawla sought replies from the Centre and the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) on a petition filed by two lawyers, Mukul Talwar and Vrinda Grover, challenging the requirement of quoting Aadhaar number or linking it with PAN for e-filing of tax returns.

Hearing their petition, the bench issued notices to the authorities and allowed the two lawyers to file their returns without quoting Aadhaar number. At the same time, the court also directed the I-T department to accept their returns.

The bench made it clear that the I-T department would not insist on linking of Aadhaar or quoting of Aadhaar number or its enrolment number in the returns filed by the petitioners. It listed the matter for further hearing on May 14.

The petitioners argued that when the Supreme Court itself had extended the time limit for Aadhaar-linking till further orders, how could the I-T department insist on quoting of Aadhaar to allow e-filing of returns. They termed 'arbitrary' the refusal by I-T department's Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) to accept tax returns without Aadhaar number.

The petition challenged sub-Rule 12 (3) of the I-T Rules, saying that it "constitutes an unconstitutional fetter on the administrative discretion and, therefore, was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution to the extent that it does not contemplate accepting returns of assessees which are filed in the manual mode".

The petitioners maintained that insistence on Aadhaar enrolment in order to file tax returns was "arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution".

The petition further noted that though on March 27 this year CBDT extended till June 30 the last date for linking Aadhaar with PAN, yet the online filing refuses to accept ITR without Aadhaar.

Meanwhile, the I-T department's lawyer said there was no clarity on whether hard copies of tax returns without Aadhaar number could be accepted or processed.

The petition has sought directions to the Centre and the CBDT not to "penalise or prosecute individual assessees for being unable to electronically file their returns of income due to the e-filing portal not accepting returns for non-quoting of Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrolment number".

