Inordinate tax appeal delay not condoned where rectification plea and later case law failed to explain prolonged inaction.

Inordinate delay in filing a tax appeal will not be condoned unless the assessee shows a credible, continuing sufficient cause for the entire period of default. The Tribunal found that pendency of a rectification application before the first appellate authority did not justify waiting more than 13 years to appeal, especially where the first appellate order had already decided the liability issue on merits. A later judicial decision also did not excuse the delay because the assessee still failed to appeal within a reasonable time after that ruling. The Tribunal therefore declined to admit the appeals for want of sufficient cause.

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Issues: Whether the assessee had shown sufficient cause for condonation of an inordinate delay of more than 13 years in filing the appeals before the Tribunal.

Analysis: The delay was explained by reference to a pending rectification application before the first appellate authority and to a later judicial decision said to have prompted the appeals. The Tribunal held that the first appellate order had already decided the assessee's challenge on merits, including the liability to deduct tax at source on salaries paid to expatriate employees. The pendency of a rectification application did not justify postponing the statutory appeal for over a decade. The explanation based on subsequent case law was also found insufficient because, even after that decision, the assessee did not appeal within a reasonable time and there was no credible explanation for the continued inaction. The authorities cited on liberal construction of "sufficient cause" did not assist the assessee on these facts, because the delay after the later decision remained unexplained and the Revenue's expectation of finality had intervened.

Conclusion: No sufficient cause was made out for condonation of the extraordinary delay, and the Tribunal declined to admit the appeals.

Ratio Decidendi: Inordinate delay in filing a tax appeal will not be condoned unless the assessee shows a credible and continuing sufficient cause; pendency of a rectification application or a later change in legal position does not by itself excuse prolonged inaction.

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