Appellate orders favourable to Department not given effect to for a period exceeding 5 to 6 years. - Income Tax - 962/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 962/CBDT Dated : June 22, 1976 It has come to the notice of the Board, as a result of inspection carried on by the Inspection Team, that in some Commissioners' charges the Incometax Officers have not given effect till April, 1976 to 61% of the orders passed by the Incometax Appellate Tribunal during the years 1972 and 1974. Not only this, in some of the cases it was noticed that the appellate orders favourable to the Department were not given effect to for a period exceeding 5 to 6 years and in some other cases, copies of the orders were not available on the respective assessment files. 2. The Board takes a very serious view of such lapses. You are requested to take immediate action, among other things on the following lines:- i) A study may be made, in the first instance, in regard to the orders passed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal during the last 5 years from 1971 to 1975 as to whether effect has been given to such orders. Depending on the results of this study, you may consider the desirability of going back to earlier years also. Simultaneously, steps should be taken to ensure that effect is given to all the pending Tribunal orders forthwith. ii) In case you find that inordinate delay has taken place in giving effect to a large number of orders passed by the Incometax Appellate Tribunal, favourable to the Department. you may examine the desirability of taking disciplinary action against officers and men who were responsible for such delays. iii) Apart from taking disciplinary action against individuals, you may evolve a system whereby such lapses will not recur in future.