LAHORE, Sept 24: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside the orders of the regional income tax commissioner, regarding the random selection of the returns filed under the new Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS).

In a short order, Justice Nasim Sikandar allowed 105 petitions filed on common grounds. Detailed judgment would be issued later.

Earlier, the petitioners’ counsel submitted that under the SAS 2002-03, as many as 20 per cent income tax returns were to be selected randomly by the income tax regional commissioner for audit purposes in order to determine the genuineness of the returns.

The audit process was to be governed by the guidelines which were supposed to be issued immediately after the announcement of the SAS in June 2002.

The guidelines were issued in December 2002, making the entire procedure dubious and prejudicial to the petitioners.

The counsel submitted that under the income tax law, the commissioner was not authorized to select the cases for audit since the guidelines governing this procedure had no legal binding owing to their delayed enforcement.

He pleaded the court to declare the guidelines illegal.