TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2003 (5) TMI 35
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....the Revenue's appeal in limine merely on technical point and without adjudicating the issues on merits? (2) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal was right in law in holding that it was a mandatory requirement of law to set forth the grounds of appeal in the memorandum of appeal and the failure to do so does not fall under the category of a rectifiable defect? (3) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal was right in holding that in the peculiar facts of the case the appeal presented by the Revenue in the Tribunal on May 6, 1994, wherein no grounds of appeal were set forth in the memorandum of appeal, was not to be admitted, al....
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.... on the ground of noncompliance of section 253(2) of the Act read with rules 8 and 9 of the Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1963 (for short, "the 1963 Rules"). We have heard learned counsel for the parties and carefully perused the record. We have also gone through the relevant statutory provisions. A reading of order dated August 5, 1999, shows that the appeal presented by the Revenue in the Registry of the Tribunal, on May 6,1994, was not accompanied by the grounds of appeal which ought to have been filed as per the requirement of rule 8 of the 1963 Rules. On May 10, 1994, a communication is said to have been issued by the Registry of the Tribunal to the Assessing Officer pointing out that copies of the grounds of appeal had not been filed (....
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.... indicative of the casualness with which the Revenue had treated the issue relating to the filing of the grounds of appeal. In our opinion, the reasons assigned by the Tribunal for declining to accept the grounds of appeal filed in response to show cause notice issued on August 26, 1998, are legally unsustainable and the lapse committed by the Department in not filing the grounds of appeal along with the memorandum of appeal dated May 6, 1994, did not justify dismissal of the appeal in limine, more so because in response to the notice issued on September 26, 1998, the Departmental Representative had filed grounds of appeal duly signed by Shri S.K. Chopra, Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax (Investigation Circle-II), Chandigarh. Sect....
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....Rule 9(1) does contain the requirement of filing of the specified documents along with the memorandum of appeal, but sub-rule (3) thereof gives ample discretion to the Tribunal to accept the memorandum of appeal even though it may not be accompanied by any of the documents referred to in sub-rule (1). These provisions are procedural in character. Therefore, the failure of the Department to file grounds of appeal on May 6, 1994, should not have been made a ground for dismissing the appeal in limine, more so because in response to the show cause notice issued by the Tribunal, the grounds of appeal duly signed by the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax (Investigation Circle-II), Chandigarh, had been filed. We are further of the view that t....