Prosecution was initiated against assessee under sections 276B and 278B due to default in deposit of TDS. On receipt of notice of prosecution the assessee filed an application to Commissioner for compounding of offences. Commissioner rejected said application on ground that assessee had been convicted for same offences for assessment years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 and said fact was suppressed in application. He held that application was not maintainable in light of Para 8.1(iii) of CBDT Compounding Guidelines, 2019. Assessee claimed that order of conviction related to earlier years was under challenge in SLP wherein Supreme Court had stayed operation of order of conviction and he could not be considered a ‘convict’ during pendency of aforesaid proceedings. On writ the Court held that prior order of conviction is a relevant fact and could not be said to be inconsequential and, thus, assessee should have duly disclosed existence of conviction order and proceedings pending before SLP while furnishing information in instant compounding application. Since assessee was a repeat defaulter and had been successfully convicted by Criminal Court in complaints filed against him, in such circumstances until pending conviction orders with respect to earlier years were set aside, there was no infirmity in order of Commissioner in light of Para 8.1(iii) of CBDT guidelines, 2019. (AY.  2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18)