2009 (4) TMI 55 - HC - Income Tax

Whether tribunal can decide appeal on merits against order of Commissioner (A)( who rejected the condonation application) - held that refusal to condone delay would tantamount to confirming the order of assessment therefore appeal against it lies to the Appellate Tribunal and the Tribunal can well go into the merits of the case amendment in Section 80HHC has been challenged before various High Courts which are pending therefore Tribunal was right in remitting the matter to AO to await the outcome of the writ petition without deciding whether the delay in filing the first appeal was condonable

Summary

The High Court of Madras heard an appeal from the revenue against an order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal related to the assessment year 2001-02. The Tribunal remitted the matter back to the assessing officer to await the outcome of a writ petition challenging an amendment to the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 2004. The Tribunal's decision was based on the premise that a similar issue had been remitted to the assessing officer in another case pending the decision of the High Court. The revenue argued that the Tribunal should have set aside the order of assessment instead of remitting it back. The Court referred to a previous Division Bench ruling and a Supreme Court case to support the Tribunal's decision. The Court found that the Tribunal had not erred in remitting the matter back to the assessing officer and dismissed the appeal. The decision was based on the agreement of both parties and the precedence of a similar issue being remitted back to the assessing officer in a previous case. The appeal was therefore dismissed.