High Court Tax Cases Pendency: 33% Yet to Get First Hearing, says Database

A recent analysis of pending tax litigation in Indian High Courts has revealed that nearly one-third of all tax-related cases are yet to receive their first hearing.

The information, which has been collected from tax and judicial databases, shows the increasing lag in tax dispute settlement and its broader consequences on business and revenue administration.

According to the compiled data, over 33 percent of cases have remained unattended since being filed, some stretching back several years, reported Business Standard. These cases include appeals filed by both government departments and assessees against orders of appellate tribunals under the Income Tax Act, Goods and Services Tax (GST), and Customs laws.

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The analysis further indicates that, in the last 10 years, 27.9 percent of the pending cases have undergone between one and three hearings, while 27.1 percent have seen between three and ten hearings. Just 11.2% of cases have advanced past ten hearings, revealing how slowly tax issues are decided.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has in recent years intensified efforts to curb litigation through higher monetary thresholds for appeals and dispute settlement schemes like Vivad se Vishwas. However, experts say that relief would only last temporarily until the legal process for tax cases is considerably better.

Based on a dataset of DAKSH High Court Database, Business Standard calculations, over 320,000 tax-related cases filed between 2000 and 2021 covering 23 out of India’s 25 High Courts. 12,519 cases among these are pending for 10 years or more.

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