Quarterly report of Reference applications u/s 256(1). - Income Tax - 1639/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1639/CBDT Dated: July 23, 1985 The practice of seeking Boards approval for filing Reference Application u/s.256(1) before the appellate tribunal had been discontinued by Instruction No.1328 dated 5th April 1980. The Commissioners are allowed to decide on their own the acceptance of the decisions of the Tribunal. Even where reference application u/s.256(1) is rejected by the Tribunal and the Commissioner proposes to accept the same on reconsideration he is not required to refer the matter to the Board. Filing of Reference Applications u/s.256(1) will be considerably reduced if before deciding on it, the Commissioners apply their mind to the issues arising from the Tribunals order and adhere to the Boards Instructions particularly the monetary limits in this regard. A perusal of proposals received for filing special leave petitions to the Supreme Court show that Reference Applications were filed in many cases where the tax effect was even less than Rs.1,000. It appears necessary to exercise some supervision at the boards level in the matter. Hence the Commissioners will send a quarterly report by the 15th of the month following the quarter to their zonal member in the following proforma in respect of all the cases where they file reference application u/s.256(1): 1. Number of cases in which Tribunal decided appeals against the department. 2. Number of cases in which reference applications u/s.256(1) were filed. 3. Number of cases in which reference applications u/s.256(1) were rejected by the tribunal. 4. Number of cases in which reference applications u/s.256(2) were filed 5(i) Number of cases in which reference application u/s.256(1) were filed even though the tax effect was below the prescribed amount of Rs.30,000. (ii) Reasons for filing such reference application. The first quarterly report should be for the quarter ended the 30th June, 1985. The above report is not to be sent case-wise.