ITAT to decide on tax cases within three months

HC directs ITAT to decide on tax cases within three months

MUMBAI: 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 ground that the tribunal took four months to deliver the order. Delivering the order, a division bench comprising Justice VC Daga and Justice S Radhakrishnan observed that justice delayed is justice denied, but justice withheld is even worse. Observing that often orders are passed four to 10 months after the tax cases have been heard, the court issued a guideline to the ITAT asking it not to take more than three months to give an order. The division bench also directed ITAT that its order should be self-containing and reasoned. HC gave this order on an appeal filed by Shivsagar Veg Restaurant. The appeal was based on the inordinate delay by ITAT in giving out the order. The taxpayer also alleged non-application of mind as the order did not furnish reasons in detail, did not discuss the issues raised by the taxpayer and did not cite the case laws. The HC said that since 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 HC, where appeals are filed on questions of law, to have a clearer understanding of the issues that come up before it, the division 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 appeared 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.”