A division bench of the Telangana High Court headed by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, while considering a writ petition has refused to condone a delay of 1546 days in filing an income tax appeal, held that the counsel cannot b blamed for such inordinate delay.
The appellant-assessee, VPR Engineers Limited filed an appeal under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, against the order dated 29.02.2016 (received on 09.03.2016) passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Hyderabad. However, there was a delay of 1546 days. The assessee explained that they were under bonafide belief that the said appeal papers were resubmitted and the appeal was numbered and pending for hearing.It was submitted that the appeal has been returned with certain objections and the same had never been resubmitted by the counsel.
Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V.Bhaskar Reddy observed that “it is seen that the appeal which was filed in the year 2016 was returned with office objections. It is stated that the appellant was under the bona fide belief that the appeal papers were resubmitted. Subsequently, when appellant enquired, it was found that the appeal which was returned with objections was not resubmitted by the counsel.”
Dismissing the appeal, the Court held that “we are unable to accept such untenable contentions made on behalf of the appellant. Merely placing the blame on the counsel cannot justify the inordinate delay of 1546 days. Even the particulars have not been furnished as to when the appeal was filed, when it was returned, the name of the counsel, whether the appellant had thereafter met the counsel etc. On the basis of such bald statements, we are not inclined to condone the inordinate delay of 1546 days. No sufficient cause has been shown.”
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