Para 19.04 of the Minutes of the Conference of Commissioners of Income-tax. - Income Tax - 1274/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1274/CBDT Dated : October 8, 1979 Reference is made to para 19.04 of the Minutes of the Conference of Commissioners of Income-tax in May, 1979 wherein the suggestion was that complicated cases of Central Circles and search and seizure cases could be represented better before the Tribunal by the DRs if the ITOs who made the assessments invariably briefed them fully with the facts and assisted them in preparation of the paper-books. 2. As per Paras 31 and 32 of Chapter XX of Office Manual (Vol.II Section II) as soon as grounds of appeal are received by the Income-tax Officer, he should without waiting for the posting of the appeal for hearing, write out the brief, meeting all the grounds raised by the appellant. Where the assessee denies the facts found by the ITO or the AAC, the points should be clearly discussed in the brief. Where complicated facts are involved and the revenue stake is high Commissioners may direct the ITO who made the assessment to assist the DR before the Appellate Tribunal. The brief may be prepared on the following lines: (a) First, there should be a brief narration of the facts of the case; (b) Next, the different contentions raised should be met point by point giving references, where necessary, to documents or evidence referred to in the assessments or appeal order (duly flagged). 3. The brief should be prepared in such a way that the authorised representative would be in a position to meet the different points raised by the appellant without much trouble. Any facts and contentions which were not put before the ITO but were placed before the Appellate Authorities for the first time should also be pointed out and dealt with in the brief. The same procedure for briefing DRs should also be adopted in the appeals filed by the Department. 4. The brief along with one copy each of Income-tax Officer's order and Appellate Assistant Commissioner's order and memo of appeal with grounds of appeal should be sent to the Departmental Representative through the Commissioner of Income-tax. The original memo of appeal should also be returned to the Departmental Representative so that he may verify whether it is in the proper form. 5. It is noticed by the Board that not much attention is being given to the aforesaid instructions and particularly in complicated cases and search and seizure cases the DRs find it difficult to put up a better representation. It is, therefore, necessary that the Commissioners should direct the Income-tax Officers who made the assessments particularly in complicated cases of Central Circles and search and seizure cases, to invariably brief the DRs fully with the facts and should also assist them in preparation of the paper-books. 6. The existing instructions are, therefore, reiterated in order to ensure better representation of the Department's view-point in the appeal filed by the assessee or by the Department. 7. One more thing of general nature is the constant irritation caused to the DRs as they do not even receive the relevant assessment records before the dates of hearing. CsIT should personally look into this aspect and ensure that DRs do receive the records, with references properly flagged, on time.