Ita/24/2002 Of Commissioner Of Income Tax v. Chandra Prakash Garg

D.B. Income Tax Appeal No.24/2002 Date of Order : 26.07.2016. HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY RASTOGIHON'BLE MR. JUSTICE J.K. RANKA Mr. Anuroop Singhi Adv., for appellant. ***** Instant appeal is directed against order of the Income Tax AppellateTribunal and indisputably the tax effect as brought to our notice, is lessthan Rs.20 lac. A Circular No.21/2015 has been issued by the Central Board of DirectTaxes dated 10.12.2015 in exercise of its power u/sec. 268A (1) of theIncome-tax Act 1961 in supersession of the Boards instruction No.5/2014dt.10.7.2014 regularising the monetary limits for filing the appeals by theRevenue before the Tribunal, High Courts and Apex Court with an object forreducing litigation. Relevant para nos.3, 8, 9 and 10 reads ad infra :- “3.Henceforth, appeals/SLPs shall not be filed in cases where the taxeffect does not exceed the monetary limits given hereunder :- It is clarified that an appeal should not be filed merely because the taxeffect in a case exceeds the monetary limits prescribed above. Filing ofappeal in such cases is to be decided on merits of the case.4.xxxxxxxxx5.xxxxxxxxx6.xxxxxxxxx7.xxxxxxxxx8.Adverse judgments relating to the following issues should becontested on merits notwithstanding that the tax effect entailed is less thanthe monetary limits specified in para 3 above or there is no tax effect:(a) Where the Constitutional validity of the provisions of an Act orRule are under challenge, or(b)Where Board's order, Notification, Instruction or Circular hasbeen held to be illegal or ultra vires, or (c)Where Revenue Audit objection in the case has beenaccepted by the Department, or(d)Where the addition relates to undisclosed foreign assets/bankaccounts. 9.The monetary limits specified in para 3 above shall not apply to writmatters and direct tax matters other than Income tax. Filing of appeals inother Direct tax matters shall continue to be governed by relevantprovisions of statute & rules. Further, filing of appeal in cases of IncomeTax, where the tax effect is not quantifiable or not involved, such as thecase of registration of trusts or institutions under section 12 A of the IT Act,1961, shall not be governed by the limits specified in para 3 above anddecision to file appeal in such cases may be taken on merits of a particularcase. 10.This instruction will apply retrospectively to pending appeals andappeals to be filed henceforth in High Courts/Tribunals. Pending appealsbelow the specified tax limits in para 3 above may be withdrawn/notpressed. Appeals before the Supreme Court will be governed by theinstructions on this subject, operative at the time when such appeal wasfiled.” The extract of the paragraphs referred to supra, clearly indicates that the limits specified in para 3 may not apply to certain exceptions specifiedin para 8, at the same time para nos.9 and 10 of the Circular if readconjointly, clearly envisages that the present instructions will applyretrospectively to all the pending appeals and appeals to be filed henceforthin High Courts/Tribunals, subject to exceptions where the tax effect even ifis less than Rs.20 lac, can be preferred in High Courts. Taking note of the CBDT Circular dt. 10/12/2015 and the tax effectwhich indisputably in the instant case is less than Rs.20 lac, much less thanwhat has been prescribed for filing appeal before the High Courts, deservesto be dismissed as not pressed. However, it is made clear that thesubstantial questions of law raised in the instant appeal, if any, are leftopen to be examined in an appropriate proceeding, if arises in future. Atthe same time we consider it appropriate to observe that if the appeal fallsin any of the exceptions as referred to in the Circular dt. 10/12/2015, theRevenue will be at liberty to move an application for recalling of the order if so advised. Accordingly, in the light of the CBDT Circular dated 10.12.2015 theappeal stands dismissed as not pressed. (J.K. RANKA),J.S. Kumawat.Jr. P.A.