The number of cases relating to Direct Taxes pending in various High Courts and the amount involved therein is as below: 

	High Court
No. of cases pending*	34,281
Amount involved* (in Rs. crore)	37,683.98

*31^st March, 2015

Income-tax Act empowers a Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner/Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Income tax, who is aggrieved by any order passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), to file an appeal to the High Court. Recently, CBDT has issued guidelines that in stations having more than one Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (CCIT), if the jurisdictional CCIT decides to file an appeal before the High Court, he is required to refer the matter to another CCIT.

The above measure is a positive step to ensure that the decision to file appeal in High Court is based on thorough analysis and merits of each case. CBDT has issued instruction which lays down timelines for filing of appeal before High Court. The timelines are in conformity with the statutory provision. Standard Operating Procedure prescribed by CBDT also lays down timelines in which appeal effect has to be given in each case consequent upon ITAT’s ruling.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Appeal from tribunal requires inter-commissioner referral and prescribed timelines for filing and implementing rulings. Senior tax commissioners are empowered to appeal tribunal orders to the higher court, but where multiple senior commissioners serve a station the jurisdictional commissioner must refer proposed appeals to another commissioner for independent review; this inter-commissioner referral is intended to ensure appeals are based on merits. The central board has issued a Standard Operating Procedure prescribing filing timelines consistent with statute and timelines for giving effect to tribunal rulings to govern appeal institution and implementation of tribunal outcomes.