Direct Tribunal appeals in block assessments are not subject to section 249(4), while consent-based assessments may bar aggrieved-person status.

Section 249(4), which governs first appeals under Chapter XX, was held not to apply by implication to direct appeals before the Tribunal under section 253(1)(b) in block assessment matters, because no corresponding restriction was enacted for Tribunal appeals. The Tribunal also applied the settled principle that an assessee who has consented to the surrender and assessment basis is ordinarily not a person aggrieved and cannot maintain an appeal against that very assessment. On the facts recorded, that objection succeeded for the surrender-based appeals, while it failed in the two appeals that were not founded on the surrender letter.

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Issues: (i) Whether section 249(4) of the Income-tax Act applied to appeals filed directly before the Tribunal under section 253(1)(b) in block assessment matters. (ii) Whether the assessee, having consented to the surrender and assessment, was a person aggrieved and competent to maintain the appeals.

Issue (i): Whether section 249(4) of the Income-tax Act applied to appeals filed directly before the Tribunal under section 253(1)(b) in block assessment matters.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that section 249(4) forms part of the provisions governing first appeals before the appellate authorities in Part A of Chapter XX and was not carried into Part B, which governs appeals before the Tribunal. It noted that when Chapter XIV-B and the direct appeal provision in section 253(1)(b) were introduced, no corresponding provision equivalent to section 249(4) was inserted for Tribunal appeals. The Tribunal declined to extend the section by implication and also noted that the assessees had declared nil income in the returns.

Conclusion: Section 249(4) was held not applicable to appeals filed directly before the Tribunal under section 253(1)(b).

Issue (ii): Whether the assessee, having consented to the surrender and assessment, was a person aggrieved and competent to maintain the appeals.

Analysis: The Tribunal applied the settled principle that an assessee who has agreed to a particular assessment basis, and on that basis the assessment is completed, cannot ordinarily claim to be aggrieved by that very order. It distinguished authorities relied upon by the assessee and accepted the Revenue's objection in respect of the appeals arising out of the surrender-based assessments. On the facts recorded, the surrender letter and the assessments made pursuant to it showed that the relevant assessees had accepted the assessment position, while two appeals were not based on the surrender letter and therefore the objection did not survive in those matters.

Conclusion: The assessee was held not to be an aggrieved person in the appeals founded on the surrender-based assessments, and those appeals were incompetent; the objection was rejected in the remaining two appeals.

Final Conclusion: The Tribunal upheld the preliminary objection for the surrender-based appeals and treated them as never having been filed, while declining the objection in the remaining appeals where the assessments were not founded on the surrender.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory provision governing first appeals cannot be extended by implication to appeals before the Tribunal where the legislature has not enacted a corresponding requirement, and an assessee who has consented to the assessment basis ordinarily lacks the status of a person aggrieved for maintaining an appeal against that very assessment.

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