C I T vs. GAJANAND SHAH

DATE OF ORDER : 23/08/2016 HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MOHAMMAD RAFIQ HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DINESH CHANDRA SOMANI Mr. Kushal Dutt Mathur on behalf of Mr. R.B. Mathur and Mr. Anuroop Singhi, for the appellants. Mr. Naresh Gupta, Mr. Sanjay Jhanwar, Mr. N.L. Agrawal and Mr. Anant Kasliwal, Mr. Gunjan Pathak for the respondents. BY THE COURT(PER HON'BLE MOHAMMAD RAFIQ, J.): All these appeals are directed against order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and indisputably, the tax effect in all of them, as brought to our notice, is less than Rs.20 lac. The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in exercise of its power u/sec. 268A (1) of the Income-tax Act 1961 in supersession of the Boards

2 instruction No.5/2014 dt.10.7.2014, issued Circular No. 21/2015 dated 10.12.2015 providing the monetary limits for filing appeals by the Revenue before the Tribunal, High Courts and Apex Court with an object to reduce litigation. Relevant para nos.3, 8, 9 and 10 reads as under:- “3. Henceforth, appeals/SLPs shall not be filed in cases where the tax effect does not exceed the monetary limits given hereunder :- S. No. Appeals in Income-tax matters Monetary Limit (in Rs.) 1 Before Appellate Tribunal 10,00,000/- 2 Before High Court 20,00,000/- 3 Before Supreme Court 25,00,000/- It is clarified that an appeal should not be filed merely because the tax effect in a case exceeds the monetary limits prescribed above. Filing of appeal in such cases is to be decided on merits of the case. 4. xxx xxx xxx 5. xxx xxx xxx 6. xxx xxx xxx 7. xxx xxx xxx

3 before the Supreme Court will be governed by the instructions on this subject, operative at the time when such appeal was filed.” The extract of the paragraphs referred to supra, clearly indicates that limits specified in para 3 may not apply to certain exceptions specified in para 8. Para nos.9 and 10 of the Circular if read conjointly, clearly envisage that the present instructions will apply retrospectively to all the pending appeals and appeals to be filed henceforth in High Courts/Tribunals, subject to certain exceptions, where the tax effect even if is less than Rs.20 lac, can be preferred in High Courts. Taking note of the CBDT Circular dt. 10/12/2015 and considering that in all these matters tax effect being less than what has been prescribed for filing appeal before the High Courts, the Revenue has chosen not to press them. It is, however, made clear that the substantial questions of law raised in the instant appeals, if any, are left open to be examined in an appropriate proceeding, if arises in future. At the same time, we deem it appropriate to observe that if any of these appeals falls in any of the exceptions as referred to in the Circular dt. 10/12/2015, the Revenue will be at liberty to move an application for revival thereof if so advised. Accordingly, in the light of the CBDT Circular dated 10.12.2015, the appeals stand dismissed as not pressed. Office is directed to place a copy of this judgment on record of each file. (Dinesh Chandra Somani), J (Mohammad Rafiq), J. Mohit Grover