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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, DELHI BENCH: ‘G’ NEW DELHI
Before: SHRI H.S. SIDHU & SHRI O.P. KANT
ORDER PER SHRI. H.S. SIDHU, J.M.
This appeal is filed by the Revenue and Cross Objection filed by the Assessee against the impugned order passed by the Ld. CIT(A)-III, New Delhi relating to assessment year 2008-09 on the following grounds of appeal:
Grounds of 1. “That the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) erred in law and on facts of the case in deleting the addition of Rs. 60,00,000/- made u/s 68 of the Act.
2. That the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) erred in law and on facts of the case in deleting the addition of Rs. 9,00,000/- w.r.t. receipts from M/s Bluejay Airlines Pvt. Ltd. made u/s 68 of the Act. 3. (a) The order of the CIT(A) is erroneous and not tenable in law and on facts. (b) The appellant craves leave to add, alter or amend any/all of the grounds of appeal before or during the course of the hearing of the appeal.” Grounds of CO No. 106/Del/2015:
1. “That on the facts and circumstances of the case and provision of law the Ld. CIT(Appeal) has failed to appreciate that the initiation of the proceeding u/s 153C of the Income Tax Act is illegal and bad in law.
2. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and the provision of the law the Ld. CIT (Appeal) has failed to appreciate that the assessment framed is against the statutory provisions of the Act and without complying the procedure prescribed u/s 153C of the Income Tax Act.”
& CO No. 106/Del/2015 3
2. Perusal of the aforesaid appeal filed by the Revenue apparently show that the same is having low tax effect as per CBDT Circular No.17/2019 dated 8th August, 2019 vide which the Revenue has been directed not to prefer any appeal in case the tax effect is less than Rs.50,00,000/- and this factual position has been fairly conceded by the Ld. CIT (DR). The Ld. A.R. contended that the appeal of the Revenue may be dismissed in the light of CBDT Circular (supra).
We have heard the parties on the issue in controversy and perused the material on record. Perusal of CBDT Circular (supra) shows that monetary limit for filing the appeal by the Department before the Tribunal, Hon'ble High Court and Hon'ble Supreme Court has been revised and the relevant portion of the aforesaid circular is extracted as under:
“Subject : Further Enhancement of Monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, High Courts and SLPs/appeals before Supreme Court - Amendment to Circular 3 of 2018 -Measures for reducing litigation. Reference is invited to the Circular No.3 of 2018 dated 11.07.2018 (the Circular) of Central Board of Direct Taxes (the Board) and its amendment dated 20th August. 2018 vide which monetary limits for filing of income tax appeals by the Department before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. High Courts and SLPs/appeals before Supreme Court have been specified. Representation has also been received that an anomaly in the said circular at para 5 may be removed.
As a step towards further management of litigation. it has been decided by the Board that monetary limits for filing of appeals in income-tax cases be enhanced further through amendment in Para 3 of the Circular mentioned above and accordingly, the table for monetary limits specified in Para 3 of the Circular shall read as follows:
& CO No. 106/Del/2015 4
S. No. Appeals/SLPs in Income-tax Monetary matters Limit (in Rs) 1 Before Appellate Tribunal 50,00,000/- 2 Before High Court 1,00,00,000/- 3 Before Supreme Court 2,00,00,000/-
3. Further, with a view to provide parity in filing of appeals in scenarios where separate order is passed by higher appellate authorities for each assessment year vis-a-vis where composite order for more than one assessment years is passed. para 5 of the circular is substituted by the following para: "5. The Assessing Officer shall calculate the tax effect separately for every assessment year in respect of the disputed issues in the case of every assessee. If, in the case of an assessee, the disputed issues arise in more than one assessment year, appeal can be filed in respect of such assessment year or years in which the tax effect in respect of the disputed issues exceeds the monetary limit specified in para 3. No appeal shall be filed in respect of an assessment year or years in which the tax effect is less than the monetary limit specified in para 3. Further, even in the case of composite order of any High Court or appellate authority which involves more than one assessment year and common issues in more than one assessment year, no appeal shall be filed in respect of an assessment year or years in which the tax effect is less than the monetary limit specified in para 3. In case where a composite order/ judgment involves more than one assessee. each assessee shall be dealt with separately."
In view of the CBDT Circular No.17/2019 dated 8th August, 2019 having retrospective effect as coordinate Bench of the Tribunal in case of Dinesh Madhavlal Patel [TS-469-ITAT-2019(Ahd)] 2019-TIOL-1556-ITAT-AHM dated 14th August, 2019 has already decided the issue as to the applicability of the captioned circular to the pending appeals in affirmative and what has been discussed above, we are of the considered view that the aforesaid appeal is not maintainable because of low tax effect i.e. less than Rs.50,00,000/- hence, the & CO No. 106/Del/2015 5 aforesaid appeal filed by the Revenue is hereby dismissed having been become infructuous. However, in case, the present appeal is found to be maintainable at any stage for any technical reasons, the Department shall be at liberty to seek recall of this order under relevant provisions of law.
ASSESSEE’S CROSS OBJECTION NO. 106/DEL/2015
As regards Assessee’s Cross Objection is concerned, since we have already dismissed the Revenue’s Appeal on account of low tax effect, as aforesaid, hence, the Cross Objection filed by the assessee has become infructuous and dismissed as such.
In the result, the appeal filed by the Department as well as Cross Objection of the assessee stand dismissed.
Order pronounced in the open court on 14.10.2019