ITO, WARD-2(1), COOCHBEHAR, COOCHBEHAR vs. SRI DULAL CHANDRA SAHA, KOLKATA

The case of the assessee in this miscellaneous application is that the assessee did not receive the notice of hearing therefore he could not attend the hearing before

We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. We note that since the assessee did not receive the notice of hearing therefore, he could not appear before this Tribunal on the date of hearing, we are of the view that this is a reasonable cause to allow this miscellaneous application therefore we recall our order dated 31.08.2018.

In the result, the Miscellaneous Application of the assessee is allowed

With the consent of both the parties at the time of hearing the appeal of the assessee in A.Y. 2014-15 has been heard on merits. We note that the assessee’s appeal comes in the ambit of tax effect of CBDT Circular vide Circular No. 17/2019 dated 08.08.2019.

The captioned appeal filed by the Revenue, pertaining to assessment year 2014- 15, is directed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal)-Jalpaiguri, which in turn arises out of an assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer u/s143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short the ‘Act’) dated 16/12/2016.

Recently the CBDT has issued Circular No. 17/2019 dated 08.08.2019, whereby the monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and High Courts and SLP before Supreme Court have been increased as measure for reducing Litigation. The revised monetary limits laid down in para-2 of this Circular are as follows: 1. Before Appellate Tribunal Rs. 50,00,000/- 2. Before High Court Rs.1,00,00,000/- 3. Before Supreme Court Rs. 2,00,00,000/- 8 In the present case, the tax effect by the revenue is less than Rs.50,00,000/-. Though this appeal had been filed by the revenue on 31/08/2017 and was within

It is a settled law that the Circulars issued by CBDT are binding on the Revenue. This position was confirmed by the Apex Court in the case of Commissioner of Customs vs Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. reported in 267 ITR 272 wherein their Lordships examined the earlier decisions of the Apex Court with regard to binding nature of the Circular and laid down that when a circular issued by the Board remains in operation then the Revenue is bound by it and cannot be allowed to plead that it is not valid or that it is contrary to the terms of the statute. The appeal under consideration has certainly been filed contrary to the Circular issued by the CBDT Circular No.17 dated 08.08.2019 10. In the event, the Revenue finds at a later point of time that the tax effect in the appeal is more than Rs.50 lakhs or despite low tax effect the appeal of the revenue is maintainable, the revenue is at liberty to move this Tribunal for recalling of this order. 11. In view of the above, we hold that the appeal filed by the Department, against the impugned order of the Ld. CIT(A), is contrary to the policy decision of the Department and as such the appeal filed by the Department is dismissed in limine.

In the result, the appeal of the Revenue is dismissed.