ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED PROCEDURAL ORDER
Shalabh Kumar Sharma v. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) and Three Others
Writ Tax No. 371 of 2020 ·
Supplied court order; no reported citation stated
CIT(A), Agra directed to decide pending appeal expeditiously, with a COVID-related six-week condition; no court-granted blanket stay.
Division Bench · Pankaj Mithal · Surya Prakash Kesarwani
1. Facts of the case
The petitioner’s statutory appeal filed on 11 January 2020 challenged an assessment order dated 26 December 2019 and was pending before CIT(A), Agra. The Court had earlier asked departmental counsel to obtain instructions about disposal timing. At the video hearing it was not aware whether instructions had been received.
2. Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
Rather than keep the writ pending, the Hon’ble Court directed expedited disposal. It linked the six-week period to production of a copy where the office was regularly working, and to resumption where the office was closed due to COVID-19. It also addressed the pending stay application if inevitable reasons prevented a merits decision.
3. Judicial decision
The writ was disposed of with a direction to decide the appeal most expeditiously, preferably within six weeks from production of a copy, provided the office was working and not closed due to COVID-19. If not working, the appeal was to be decided within six weeks from resumption. The Court expected the stay application to be dealt with within that period if inevitable reasons prevented a merits decision.
4. Outcome / in whose favour
The petitioner obtained a case-specific procedural direction for disposal of the appeal and consideration of the pending stay application. The Court did not itself grant a stay, quash the assessment or decide tax merits.
5. AKHB REVIEW POINT
Do not describe this as an unconditional six-week deadline from the judgment date or as automatic recovery protection. Preserve the production-of-copy, resumption-of-work and “preferably” qualifications. Actual subsequent disposal or stay relief is not established by this order.
Source and verification
Complete supplied one-page order read and visually inspected. Actual individual Drive original SHA-256 independently verified; complete text matched the preserved review packet. Assessment year and PAN are not stated. Later compliance, subsequent proceedings and current law are not cleared.
Source SHA-256: 9a35013673b1eb432fdd0e3769c670f399d9787cd24cfaa8a3e5ac1815b3c5be
Only provisions expressly identified in this order are recorded. No substantive tax merits or current statutory equivalence is inferred.
Source checked 2026-10-19. Later proceedings, compliance and current precedential treatment have not been comprehensively verified.
AI disclosure and professional disclaimer
This AKHB research note was prepared with AI assistance from an identified primary report. Independent human review is not represented.
General legal and tax research only; not legal or tax advice. Verify the complete judgment, applicable statutory version and subsequent treatment before reliance. The AKHB REVIEW POINT is editorial analysis, not the Court’s holding. No current-law clearance is claimed.