Bombay HC quashes delayed ITAT ruling
CORPORATE taxpayers can now hope for speedy justice. The Bombay High Court has set aside an order of the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on the grounds that the tribunal took four months to deliver the order.
Delivering the order, a division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice VC Daga and Justice S Radhakrishnan observed that justice delayed is justice denied, but justice withheld is even worse.
Having observed that often orders are given four to ten months after the tax cases have been heard, the high court issued a guideline to the ITAT asking it not to take more than three months for giving an order. The division bench also directed the ITAT that its order should be self-containing and reasoned.
The high court gave this order on an appeal filed by Shivsagar Veg Restaurant. Its appeal to the division bench was based on the inordinate delay by ITAT in giving out the order. The taxpayer also said the order did not furnish reasons in detail, did not discuss the issues raised and the case laws cited.
The high court said since the ITAT is the final authority on facts, the tribunal is required to appreciate the evidence, consider the reasons of the authorities below and assign its own reasons as to why it disagreed with the findings of the authority below.
This would help the high court, where appeals are filed on questions of law, to have a clearer understanding of the issues that come up before it, the bench said.
“Merely because the tribunal happens to be an appellate authority it does not get the right to brush aside reasons or the findings recorded by the first authority or the lower appellate authority. It has to examine the validity of the reasons and findings recorded,” the bench added.
K Shivram, who argued the matter for Shivsagar Veg Restaurant, told ET: “ITAT president Vimal Gandhi had issued detailed guidelines (on speedy clearance) to ITAT members sometime ago. However, those guidelines are not being followed by the ITAT members.”
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