2016 (1) TMI 1119 - HC - Income Tax

Gujarat HC dismisses Tax Appeal as Tribunal reduces penalty, deeming it small. Court refuses appeal, question of law undecided.

The Gujarat HC dismissed the Tax Appeal as the Tribunal reduced the penalty from Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 16,000, deeming the amount small. The Court refused to ... Application for waiver of pre-deposit - Tribunal, by the impugned judgment, entered into the merits of the case and reduced the penalty. - Held that:- It is true that in the past, we have disapproved the approach of the Tribunal to decide the appeals on merits while considering question of pre-deposit without going into such issue of pre-deposit. However, upon perusal of the documents on record, it emerges that the amount of penalty involved in this Tax Appeal is extremely small. Against the penalty of ₹ 80,000/- imposed by the lower authorities, the Tribunal, by the impugned judgment, reduced it to ₹ 16,000/-. Only on the question of smallness of amount involved, we are not inclined to entertain this Tax Appeal, making it clear that the question of law is kept open. The Gujarat High Court dismissed the Tax Appeal as the Tribunal reduced the penalty from Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 16,000, considering the small amount involved. The Court did not entertain the appeal due to the smallness of the penalty amount. The question of law was kept open. Civil Application for stay was also dismissed.