CBDT monetary limit for High Court appeals applies to pending matters, and later exceptions operate only prospectively.

Revised CBDT monetary limits for filing appeals before the High Court apply to pending appeals as well, and an appeal with tax effect below the prescribed limit is not maintainable. The Revenue's reliance on an exception introduced later failed because such exceptions operate prospectively from their date of introduction and cannot revive an appeal filed before they came into force. On that basis, where the tax effect was below the revised threshold, the appeal was disposed of as not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the appeal could be prosecuted despite the tax effect being below the revised monetary limit, and whether the exception relied upon by the Revenue applied to an appeal filed before the exception was introduced.

Analysis: The revised CBDT circular raised the monetary limit for appeals before the High Court to Rs. 2 crores, and the tax effect in the appeal was Rs. 1.13 crores, which fell below that limit. The Court applied the settled position that monetary limits in CBDT circulars govern pending appeals as well, while exceptions carved out by such circulars operate only prospectively from the date of their introduction. Since the appeal had been filed before the exception relied upon by the Revenue came into force, the exception could not be invoked to continue the appeal.

Conclusion: The appeal was not maintainable in view of the monetary limit and was disposed of accordingly.

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