Commissioner Of Income Tax, Jaipur-Iii, Jaipur v. Shri Satya Narain Goyal(Sethi

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHANJAIPUR BENCH, JAIPUR JUDGMENT D.B. INCOME TAX APPEAL NO. 384/2009 COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, JAIPUR-III, JAIPURVS.SHRI SATYA NARAIN GOYAL(SETHI). Date: 05.09.2012 HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. ARUN MISHRA'HONBLE MR. JUSTICE NARENDRA KUMAR JAIN-I Mr. Sameer Jain, for the appellant. Mr. Naresh Gupta, for the respondent. Appeal has been preferred under Section 260A of theIncome Tax Act, 1961(hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'),questioning the legality of the order dated 23.11.2007 passed bythe Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Jaipur Bench, Jaipur(hereinafter referred to as 'the ITAT'), deleting the penalty of Rs.2,67,408/- imposed under Section 158 BFA (2) of the Act. Preliminary objection has been raised that sincemonetary limit in the instant case is below Rs. 4,00,000/-, inview of Circular dated 24.10.2005, the appeal should not beentertained. Provisions of Section 268A have been amendedwith retrospective effect w.e.f. 01.04.1999 vide the Finance Act,2008. Following is the provision inserted by way of Finance Act,2008: “268A. (1) The Board may, from time to time, issueorders, instructions or directions to other income-taxauthorities, fixing such monetary limits as it maydeem fit, for the purpose of regulating filing ofappeal or application for reference by any income-tax authority under the provisions of this Chapter.”orders, instructions or directions to other income-taxauthorities, fixing such monetary limits as it maydeem fit, for the purpose of regulating filing ofappeal or application for reference by any income-tax authority under the provisions of this Chapter.” The monetary limit for filing appeal under Section260(A) of the Act before this Court vide Para 2 of Circular dated24.10.2005 is with respect to tax effect of Rs. 4,00,000/-. It hasreference to earlier Instructions No. 1979 dated 27.03.2000,Instruction No. 1985 dated 19.06.2000, wherein monetary limitfor filing appeals before various authorities have beenprescribed. Vide Notification dated 24.10.2005, the monetarylimit prescribed is that the appeals will henceforth be filed only inthe cases under Section 260A to the High Court, where the taxeffect exceeds revised monetary limit of Rs. 4,00,000/-. Notification dated 09.02.2011 has also been placedon record for our perusal, wherein words “Tax Effect” have beensubstituted with words “Monetary Limit” and appeal before theAppellate Tribunal can be filed, where the monetary limitexceeds Rs. 3,00,000/-. Appeal under Section 260A can be filedbefore the High Court in case monetary limit exceeds Rs.10,00,000/-. The words “Tax Effect” in our opinion includes thepenalty also, as penalty is in addition to the tax and is the effectof the tax only. Thus, the appeal cannot be said to be maintainable inview of the statutory force given in the instructions of CBDT byvirtue of retrospective operation of provision of Section 268A ofthe Act and the same is, hereby, dismissed. (NARENDRA KUMAR JAIN-I),J. (ARUN MISHRA),CJ. Manoj “All corrections made in the judgment/order have been incorporatedin the judgment/order being emailed.”