The Gujarat High Court has held that it is mandatory to provide a 1 month gap between ITR (audit) date and Tax Audit date.
The bench of Justice Bhargav D. Karia and Justice Pranav Trivedi has observed that merely extending the specified date without the due date for filing of returns would be contrary to the explanation (ii) to section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and contrary to the legislative intention to bring amendment by Finance Act 2020.
The bench while taking note of the previous 5 years data stated that it clearly demonstrates that at no point of time the difference between the specified date and the due date is less than one month after the assessment year 2021 from which the amendment brought on statute by Finance Act 2020 is applicable. It is clear that there has always been a difference of 1 month from the specified date for filing the audit report and the due date for filing the return.
The issue raised was whether the due date under Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is required to be extended in view of the Circular No. 14/2025 dated 25/09/2025 as per explanation or not?
The CBDT in its affidavit stated that for the AY 2024-25 (last year) the specified date was extended from 31st October, 2024 to 15th November 2024 i.e. the due date was extended for more than 1 month than the specified date. There is no embargo on extending the due date the explanation (ii) to section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 provides that the specified date has to be prior to one month from the due date of filing of return under Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The department contended that the CBDT is monitoring the functioning of the e-filing portal and also taking measures to address grievances of the taxpayers and the due date of filing of return of income is to be considered by the end of October 2025.
The court noted that CBDT is waiting till the end of October to extend the due date for filing the returns after closely monitoring the functioning of the e-filing portal.
However, the court noted that in light of the amendment by Finance Act 2020 providing a gap of one month between the date of uploading of the audit report and the due date of filing of return as per Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The court stated that the CBDT’s averment of closely monitoring the functioning of the e-filing portal is of no consequence as statutorily there has to be a gap of one month between the date of uploading of the audit report being the specified date and the due date of filing of return as per Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The court noted that as the CBDT has not issued any circular while exercising its power under Section 119 and the due date for filing the return of income for the assessees’ covered by Explanation (a) to Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 by extending the specified date from 30 September 2025 to 31st October 2025 would require a consequential circular to extend the due date to 30th November, 2025 as per the provision of explanation (ii) to section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 read with Explanation (a) to Section 139 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The court directed the CBDT to issue the circular extending the due date of filing of return upto 30 November 2025 for the assessee’s who are required to file audit report for FY 2024-25.
The court ordered the CBDT to file a compliance report on 16/10/2025.
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