Pr. Commissioner Of Income Tax (C)-I v. M/S Bhushan Energy Ltdthrough

$~2 *IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI +ITA 263/2017 PR. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX (C)-I ..... AppellantThrough:Mr. Sanjay Kumar & Mr. DileepShivpuri, Advocates versus M/S BHUSHAN ENERGY LTDThrough ..... Respondent CORAM:JUSTICE S.MURALIDHARJUSTICE CHANDER SHEKHARO R D E R%02.05.2017 CM No.12612/2017 1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions. -CM No.12613/2017(delay of 533 days in refiling appeal) 2. There is an inordinate delay of 533 days in re-filing the appeal. 3. The Court finds that the standard excuse that the Department is puttingforth in all such applications for condonation of delay in re-filing the appealis regarding the practice directions issued by the Court pertaining to filing ofsoft copies of the paperbooks in tax matters. 4. As regards this ground, sufficient advance notice had been given to thelitigants and Advocates about the filing of soft copies of the paperbooks. ITA No.263 of 2017 Further, the Registry of the Court had made appropriate arrangements forscanning services at the filing counters to facilitate the making of soft copiesso that the inconvenience if any caused to the Advocates and the litigants isminimised. In any event the change could not have entailed a delay of morethan one year. 5. It is not possible to accept that no one followed up on the filing of appealsand allowed a period of more than one year to elapse before the appeal couldbe re-filed. The Department has a cell in the High Court which is under thesupervision of a Deputy CIT. He ought to be keeping track of the filing ofappeals and should be able to know if any appeal entrusted to the panelcounsel for filing has not been listed even once before the Court for a longtime. 6. The application bearing CM No.12613/2017 for condonation of the delayof 533 days in re-filing the appeal is dismissed. Accordingly, the appeal isdismissed. S.MURALIDHAR, J MAY 02, 2017tp CHANDER SHEKHAR, J ITA No.263 of 2017