While dismissing the departmental appeal, the division bench of the Delhi High Court refused to condone delay of 448 days. While doing so, the bench criticized the Departmental officials in charge of monitoring the filing of appeal.
The initial appeal was dismissed by the Court on ground of insufficient court fee. It took about 448 days to re-file the appeal. The Department submitted three main reasons for filing appeal. Firstly, budgetary constraints of the Department which delayed payment of the differential court fees as a result of the Court Fees Delhi Amendment Act, 2012 which came into force on 1st August 2012.
The second argument was based on the practice directions issued by the Court pertaining to filing of soft copies of the paper books in tax matters. Thirdly, the standing counsel for the department had changed.
Rejecting the above contentions, the bench observed that the Court Fees Act applicable to Delhi stood amended much prior to the initial filing of the appeal. “As regards the second ground, again sufficient advance notice had been given to the litigants and Advocates about the filing of soft copies of the paper books. Further, the Registry of the Court had made appropriate arrangements for scanning services at the filing counters to facilitate the making of soft copies so that the inconvenience if any caused to the Advocates and the litigants is minimised. In any event the change could not have entailed a delay of more than 448 days.”
Before concluding, the division bench comprising of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Najimi Waziri added that “It is not possible to accept that no one followed up on the filing of appeals and allowed a period of more than 448 days to elapse before the appeal could be re-filed. The Department has a cell in the High Court which is under the supervision of a Deputy CIT. He ought to be keeping track of the filing of appeals and should be able to know if any appeal entrusted to the panel counsel for filing has not been listed even once before the Court for a long time.”
Read the full text of the Order below.
