# 18-month deadline for I-T settlement applications is mandatory: Allahabad HC 2026-08-16T00:00:23+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Allahabad High Court has ruled that the 18-month period under Section 245D(4A)(iii) of the Income Tax Act for disposing of a settlement application is mandatory, not directory. It quashed an order of the Interim Board for Settlement passed after that time limit had expired. The case involved M/s B.L. Agro Industries Limited, which filed a settlement application on 23 March 2021. The application was allotted to the Interim Board for Settlement-III, Delhi, and later transferred to the Chennai board on 13 June 2022. The Chennai board rejected the application on 30 October 2023, beyond the 18-month limit counted from the date the Delhi board first acted on it. The bench of Justice Shekhar B. Saraf and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary followed the Karnataka High Court's judgment in RNS Infrastructure Ltd., which held the deadline mandatory. The court said an order passed after 18 months is time-barred and a nullity. It quashed the October 2023 order and the subsequent rectification order, but clarified it did not decide whether the proceedings now abate under Section 245HA. ## Coverage - livelaw.in This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Allahabad High Court, CBDT, Income Tax Act, Interim Board for Settlement, M/s B.L. Agro Industries Limited Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/18-month-deadline-for-i-t-settlement-applications-is-mandatory-allahabad-hc/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/18-month-deadline-for-i-t-settlement-applications-is-mandatory-allahabad-hc/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/