Delay in filing of Appeal by the Income Tax Department- Not acceptable to the HC

High court has made it clear that will not accept the Delay in filing of appeal by the Income Tax Department. Find out in detail below so that you are aware through this case study. 

Delay in filing of appeal by the Income Tax Department-The case in Detail:

The case is Pr. Commissioner of IT vs. Diana Builders and Contractors Pvt. Ltd. in which the IT department seeks condonation in regards to delay of 448 days after the re-filing of cases.

The case study for High Court Does not accept the Delay in filing of appeal by the IT Department:

1. There is an unreasonable delay of 448 days in re-filing the appeal by the Income Tax Dept.
2. The court found that the reasons given for not putting forward such applications are very ordinary by the dept.
3. They basically gave two reasons for not being able to file the appeal timely in front of the court.
4. The first reason given was the ‘budgetary constraint’. The dept. claimed that it was running out of fund to pay the differential court fees and the second reason was that the dept. required time to provide the soft copies of all the paper books in the related case as per the directions issued by the court.
5. The court said that the first point was very unconvincing as the necessary amendments were carried out to make the fee structure fair and accurate. And this was done much before the initial filing of the appeal was made and hence it can afford to pay the fees easily.
6. The second reason of soft copies was also not acceptable as the advocates and the attorneys were given sufficient notice for filing the soft copies of the paper book.
7. In fact, proper arrangements were made by the Registry of the Court and a scanning machine was installed at the filing counters, for the convenience of the advocates to facilitate the taking out of the soft copies.
8. And so both the reasons were found unconventional by the court.
9. One of the learned advisors of the Appellant gave a third reason ‘the change of standing counsel’ for the dept.
10. This point also failed to impress the HC.
11. The Court said that the dept. has a cell in the HC which is to be supervised by the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (Deputy CIT) who is specially appointed by the CBDT for looking into and maintaining a track of the filing of appeals. How can the Court condone for an appeal which has not even been once listed before the court in spite of so many arrangements made to facilitate the filing of appeals.

The Verdict in Case of Delay in filing of Appeal:

On the above grounds the Court dismissed the application of condonation by the IT department for a delay of 448 days in re-filing an appeal.

The above case is a landmark case having impact on large number of cases. In case you are also victim of the delay in appeals being filed by Income Tax Department, you may not take lying low and use this precedent set by the judgment

Also Read- Rules for condonation of delay in Corporate Taxes