THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX (EXEMPTIONS) V. THE HYDERABAD CRICKET ASSOCIATION, HYDERABAD

33271/2025

AI Insights

The case involves the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) as the petitioner and the Hyderabad Cricket Association as the respondent. The core issue was the significant delay (524 days) in filing the special leave petition against a judgment passed by the High Court for the State of Telangana. The Supreme Court required a detailed affidavit explaining the reasons for the delay, which revealed a cumbersome internal process within the Income Tax Department. Despite the delay, the court decided to condone it, referencing similar cases that had been entertained under comparable circumstances.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 784458 (null-MISC)
• Appeal Type: Others
• Pronouncement Date: 21-11-2025
• Result in Favour of: Revenue
• Assessee Lawyers: N VENKATARAMAN; SACHIN SHARMA; MADHULIKA UPADHYAY
• Keywords: Condonation of delay; Exemptions; Income Tax; Special Leave Petition

Judgement Text

"1 ITEM NO.43 COURT NO.10 SECTION XII-A S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL)…………………………….. Diary No. 33271/2025 [Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 12-10-2023 in ITTA No. 104/2022 passed by the High Court for the State of Telangana at Hyderabad] THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX (EXEMPTIONS) Petitioner(s) VERSUS THE HYDERABAD CRICKET ASSOCIATION, HYDERABAD Respondent(s) (IA No. 268504/2025 - CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING; IA No. 268505/2025 - CONDONATION OF DELAY IN REFILING / CURING THE DEFECTS Date : 21-11-2025 This matter was called on for hearing today. CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PANKAJ MITHAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRASANNA B. VARALE For Petitioner(s) Mr. N Venkataraman, A.S.G. (N.P.) Mr. Sachin Sharma, Adv. Ms. Madhulika Upadhyay, AOR Mr. V C Bharathi, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Advitya Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Ashiwan Mishra, Adv. For Respondent(s) UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R 1. Heard Mr. Sachin Sharma, learned counsel for the petitioner. 2. There is a delay of 524 days in filing the special leave petition. 3. We were not satisfied by the explanation Digitally signed by SNEHA DAS Date: 2025.11.21 18:22:37 IST Reason: Signature Not Verified 2 furnished in the delay condonation application. Therefore, in the interest of justice, we required the petitioner to file a better affidavit. 4. In pursuance thereof, a better affidavit explaining the delay has been filed. This better affidavit in paragraph ‘5’ gives the details of the various steps taken by the petitioner in the process of filing the petition. 5. The said details would indicate that despite the knowledge of the impugned order instead of directing for the filing of the special leave petition, the petitioner called for scrutiny report. When the scrutiny report was submitted, a second scrutiny report was called for. Thereafter, since the matter had been delayed, the explanation was called as to why the delay had occurred. Then the papers were submitted to the Panel Counsel for drafting the special leave petition. Once the petition was drafted, it was sent for vetting not only once, but thrice. Once the vetting was completed, it was again marked to the Panel Lawyer for drafting the application for condonation of delay. 6. The entire process, as explained in the above paragraph, indicates that the petitioner has followed a long process of filing the special leave 3 petition despite being aware of the fact that the petition has to be filed within the specified timeframe. No one in the Department is taking care to shorten the process of filing the petition so that the special leave petitions may be filed within time. This is despite the fact that the Department has a team of legal experts to advice and to take necessary action. It appears that the Department has not trusted even upon its lawyers. 7. However, in the over all facts and circumstances of the case, as certain other matters on a similar point have already been entertained, we condone the delay in filing and refiling the special leave petition as a special case and direct it to be tagged with Civil Appeal No. 1294 of 2015. 8. Let this order be communicated to the concerned Commissioner of Income Tax and to the other higher authorities of the department for necessary corrective measures. (SNEHA DAS) (NIDHI MATHUR) SENIOR PERSONAL ASSISTANT COURT MASTER (NSH) "