No Action is taken against Officers who Sit on Files and do nothing under Presumption that Court will Condone Delay: Delhi HC slams Income Tax Dept for late filing of Appeal [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court slammed Income Tax Department for late filing of appeal and commented that “No action is taken against officers who sit on files and do nothing under presumption that court will condone delay”.

By way of these two applications, filed under Section 5 Limitation Act, the appellant/revenue sought condonation of delay in re-filing the respective appeals as captioned after removal of defects raised by the Registry of this court.

Despite the original filing of these appeals being beyond prescribed period of time, no specific application for condonation of delay in filing the appeals was filed with either of these appeals. Vide order dated 19.12.2022, the counsel for the appellant/revenue sought and was allowed to file an affidavit containing better particulars to explain the delay between the date of the receipt of the impugned orders and institution of the earlier appeals (which were dismissed as withdrawn on 12.02.2021), and the delay which occurred thereafter.

The counsel for appellant/revenue took us through the above mentioned dates and stages, contending that this is a fit case to condone delay in filing these appeals. It was also submitted by learned counsel for appellant/revenue that while considering the sufficiency of cause explaining the delay, the court ought to be liberal keeping in mind that the appellant is a government machinery.

On the other hand, the counsel for respondent/ assessee strongly opposed the request for condonation of delay, pointing out that not only there is no sufficient cause but even there is no formal application seeking condonation of delay in filing these appeals.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Girish Kathpalia observed that “The irony is that no action is taken against the officers who sit on files and do nothing under presumption that the court would condone delay in routine and it is time when the concerned officers responsible for such laxity bear the consequences.”

The Court further observed that “But sadly, there appears no change. We still would prefer to remain hopeful that some serious soul searching would be done by the revenue by way of a meticulous enquiry to rule out if in such cases the defaults were tailored to extend a covert help to the rival side, and to ascertain the fault lines”.

“The appellant/revenue has failed to set up any circumstance to satisfy us that they were precluded from filing the present appeals in time by any cause beyond their control. We are unable to find any sufficient cause to condone this inordinate delay in filing these appeals after removal of filing defects. Consequently, there is no occasion to condone the delay in re-filing these appeals. Both applications are therefore, dismissed” the Court concluded.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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