1999 (10) TMI 10

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....nd of income-tax under section 119(2)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, has been rejected. The petitioner is a contractor. Income-tax has been deducted at source from his income as a contractor. He claims that the amounts of Rs. 75,623, Rs. 76,417 and Rs. 66,024 for the years 1991-92, 1992-93 and 1993-94, respectively, are refundable to him. He has filed the returns in the year 1996. He applied for condonation of delay. That application has been rejected by respondent No.1-Central Board of Direct Taxes, New Delhi, as communicated to the petitioner by the impugned orders. Notices have been served on the respondents. Their standing counsel took time to file the return but it has not been filed. The arguments of both sides were heard. The mai....

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....r is considered to be the third principle of natural justice. A speaking order is necessary if the judicial review is to be effective. Lord Denning said in Breen v. Amalgamated Engineering Union [1971] 1 All ER 1148, 1154, (CA): "The giving of reasons is one of the fundamentals of good administration". The reasons introduce clarity and exclude arbitrariness and satisfy the party concerned against whom the order is passed. Even if the statute does not impose an obligation to record reasons, it is necessary for the quasi-judicial authority to record reasons as that is the only visible safeguard against possible injustice and arbitrariness and affords protection to the person adversely affected. Reasons are the links between the materials on w....

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....quasi-judicial authorities in support of the orders passed by them is a basic principle of natural justice. In CIT v. Walchand and Co. Pvt. Ltd. [1967] 65 ITR 381 (SC) also it was observed that the practice of recording a decision without reasons in support cannot but be deprecated. Again in Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education v. K. S. Gandhi [1991] 2 SCC 716, it has been reiterated that the reasons are the harbinger between the mind of the maker of the order to the controversy in question and the decision or conclusion arrived at. They also exclude the chances of reaching an arbitrary, whimsical or capricious decision or conclusion. The reasons assure an inbuilt support to the conclusion/decision reached.....