Tribunal territorial jurisdiction depends on the assessing officer's location; appeal dismissed for filing before the wrong Bench.

Territorial jurisdiction of the Tribunal depends on the location of the jurisdictional assessing officer. Where the assessing officer who passed the impugned assessment was outside the Panaji Bench's territorial limits, the appeal could not be entertained by that Bench and had to be filed before the bench having proper territorial jurisdiction. Applying the same jurisdictional principle followed in earlier coordinate bench decisions, the appeal was held not maintainable before the Panaji Bench and was dismissed in limine.

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Issues: Whether the appeal was maintainable before the Panaji Bench of the Tribunal when the assessing officer having territorial jurisdiction over the assessee was situated outside its territorial limits.

Analysis: The governing principle applied was that the Tribunal's ordinary jurisdiction is determined by the location of the jurisdictional assessing officer. The order proceeds on the basis that the territorial limits of the Panaji Bench do not extend to the assessing officer who passed the impugned assessment in this case. Following the same jurisdictional principle applied in earlier coordinate bench decisions, the appeal could not be entertained by this Bench and had to be presented before the appropriate bench having jurisdiction over the assessing officer.

Conclusion: The appeal was held to be not maintainable before the Panaji Bench and was dismissed in limine.

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