The Revenue rejected the prayer of the assessee for compounding the offences under s. 276CC r/w s. 278E of the Act on the ground that (i) the application seeking compounding of the offences was not filed within the stipulated time and (ii) the assessee already stood convicted by the Addl. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (‘ACMM’). The assessee filed an appeal against the conviction order, wherein an application under s. 391 of the CrPC was also filed. The assessee also filed a review application. The Special Judge, CBI, set aside the conviction and order of sentence and directed the ACMM to consider the fresh documents filed by the assessee and pass a fresh order in the trial. Review application rejection on the ground that the assessee was not acquitted of the criminal charges. Aggrieved, the assessee approached the Delhi High Court.

The High Court set aside the rejection of the compounding application and review application on the ground that (i) in view of the CBDT Circular dated 9^th September 2019 [(2019) 181 DTR (St) 141 : (2019) 310 CTR (St) 155], the objection on limitation did not survive any further as the said circular grants one-time concession relaxing the period of 12 months from the filing of the complaint as a limitation for filing of the applications seeking compounding and (ii) as far as the objection of conviction of the assessee was concerned, in view of the order passed by the CBI Judge, it also no longer survived as the conviction has been set aside. Moreover, the Revenue was also directed to consider the application of the petitioner seeking compounding of the offence under section 276CC r/w section 278E on merit and in accordance with the law.( AY. 2008 -09 )