ACIT, CENTRAL CIRCLE-4, NEW DELHI vs. VIKAS KAPOOR,, DELHI

No one was present on behalf of the Revenue. In fact, the Revenue has filed en bloc adjournment applications for all the cases listed today. Ex consequenti, there is no one in the Court Room to represent the Revenue. The ld. AR seriously objected to the grant of adjournment in his case. As such, I am not inclined to accept the adjournment application filed for the Revenue and proceeding to dispose of the appeals on merits ex parte qua the Revenue.

During the course of hearing, the ld. AR submitted that pursuant to the mandate of section 268A, the CBDT has issued Circular No. 21 of 2015 dated 10.12.2015 with retrospective effect, revising the monetary limit to Rs.10,00,000/- for not filing appeals before the Tribunal. He further submitted that as the tax effect involved in the instant appeals is Rs.9,26,876/- for the assessment year 2009-10 and Rs.2,49,244/- for the assessment year 2010-11 -, the extant appeals are not maintainable.

I have heard the ld. AR and perused the relevant material on record. Going by the prescription of the aforenoted Circular, I am of the view that the Revenue should have either not filed the instant appeals before the Tribunal or withdrawn the same as the tax effect in these appeals is less than the prescribed limit for not filing the appeals. From para 10 of the above Circular it is palpable that the Instruction is applicable to the pending appeals also with retrospective effect and there is a clear-cut direction to the Department to withdraw or not press such appeals filed before the ITAT wherein tax effect is less than Rs.10,00,000/-.