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2020 (5) TMI 441
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....f the ITAT for declining to consider pertinent issues that go into the root of the matter and relate to assumption of jurisdiction and validity of the reassessment proceedings undertaken by the revenue under Section 153C of the Act. The Controversy- In brief 2. The revenue-initiated search action under Section 132 of the Act on Kouton Group on 19.02.2009 and during the search proceedings, it inter-alia seized a document described as 'Memorandum of Understanding' ('MOU') relating to transaction of sale and purchase of share capital of M/s S.R. Resorts Private Limited. Consequent upon the seizure of the aforesaid document, a notice was issued to the appellant under Section 153C of the Act, calling for filing of return of income. Since there was no compliance to the said notice, another notice was issued under Section 142(1)(ii) of the Act. In response thereto, the appellant filed the original return of income declaring total income of Rs. 8,90,760/- and submitted that the same be treated as a return in compliance to notice under Section 153C of the Act. The assessment proceedings culminated in framing of an assessment order dated 28.12.2010 whereby the return of income of the appel....
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....T Rules for raising the legal ground challenging the validity of the proceedings under section 153C of the Act. In our opinion, the parties to the appeal are required to follow due procedure laid down in this regard under Rule 27 of the ITAT rules, which reads as under: "Respondent may support order on grounds decided against him. 27.The respondent, though he may not have appealed, may support the order appealed against on any of the grounds decided against him." 6. Since the assessee has not filed any such application, the appellant, i.e., the revenue cannot be put to surprise by the respondent. Accordingly, the parties were requested to address on the grounds raised in the appeal before us. Since, we have not admitted additional grounds raised by the assessee, we are not adjudicating the issue raised in those additional grounds." 4. The operative portion of the order directing remand reads as under:- 10.3 We have heard the rival submissions and perused the relevant material on record. The issue in dispute in the ground raised is whether the land which was sold by the assessee, was agricultural land in terms of the provisions of the Act. The assessee was required to prove....
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....pellant's contentions. He argued that the ITAT Rules provide for three distinct and coordinate methods whereby a respondent before the ITAT can raise an issue decided against him/her by the Commissioner (Appeals). The said procedure in his words is interpreted as (i) On receipt of the Commissioner's order, an appeal can be filed in terms of Rule 6, on issues decided against such party. Form 36 is notified for this purpose; (ii). On receipt of a copy of Ground of Appeal from the other contesting party, a cross-objection can be moved on such issues in terms of Rule 22. Form 36-A is notified for this purpose; (iii). At the time of hearing of the appeal, the Respondent therein may take up issues decided against him/it, and seek to support confirmation of the Commissioner's order in this way. Rule 27 of the Rule provides for this. 7. He submitted that all the three above-stated remedies and mechanisms exist concurrently and demonstrated that all of them are bound by their own due process. Rule 27 of the ITAT Rules does not require an application to be structured in any particular manner, unlike in the case of cross-appeal or cross objection. He also submitted that the ITAT has ....
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..... Ltd. 2015 SCC OnLine Del 10952; CIT vs. Edward Keventor Successive Pvt. Ltd. 1980 123 ITR 200 (Delhi) and CIT vs. Anil Kumar Bhatia 2013 352 ITR 493 (Delhi). 9. In rejoinder, Mr. Krishnan while reiterating his submissions, distinguished and clarified the import of the judgments relied upon by Revenue and in particular, the decisions in the case of CIT vs. Divine Infra Pvt. Ltd (supra)and CIT vs. Edward Keventor Successive Pvt. Ltd (supra). Analysis 10. The facts of the case reveal that the Revenue challenged the order of the CIT (A) dated 20.03.2015 before the ITAT on the grounds pertaining to deletion of additions on account of unexplained cash credits, unexplained investments, interest paid on cash borrowings, personal expenses, long term capital gains etc. The assessee [Respondent before ITAT], admittedly did not file a cross appeal or cross objections under section 253(4) of the Act and sought to invoke Rule 27 to question the validity of the proceedings under Section 153C. Thus, in the above noted factual background, we have to consider whether the approach adopted by ITAT in declining the Appellant- assessee [Respondent before ITAT] the right to question the findings of ....
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....rned counsels for both the parties to cite plethora of case laws dealing with this jurisdictional question. 12. Before we proceed with our analysis, let us first examine the said provision and then consider the relevant case laws that deals with the interpretation of the said provision. Rule 27 of the ITAT Rules reads as under: "Respondent may support order on grounds decided against him. 27. The respondent, though he may not have appealed, may support the order appealed against on any of the grounds decided against him." There are certain other provisions which are also germane to the question of law framed in the present appeal viz Rule 6 which provides for filing of appeal, Rule 22 which provides for numbering of cross objections and sub-Section 4 of Section 253 of the Act. The said provisions read as under:- "Rule 6. Procedure for filing appeals. (1) A memorandum of appeal to the Tribunal shall be presented by the appellant in person or by an agent to the Registrar at the headquarters of the Tribunal at Bombay, or to an officer authorised in this behalf by the Registrar, or sent by registered post addressed to the Registrar or to such officer. (2) A memorandum of ap....
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....see may not have preferred an independent appeal before the ITAT against the order of the Appellate Assistant Commission (AAC), it could still invoke the said provision to support the order on any of the grounds decided against him. The court interpreted the Rule and held that its invocation is not restricted to grounds decided favorably but would also include the grounds held against him by the authority whose decision is the subject matter of challenge. The relevant portion of the said judgment read as under: "11. The appellant has no right to urge any ground not set forth in the memorandum of appeal. But it would be open to the Tribunal to grant him leave to raise additional grounds. So far as the Tribunal is concerned, it would not be fettered in its decision by confining to the grounds set forth in the memorandum of appeal or even to those taken by the appellant with the leave of the Tribunal. So long as the principles of natural justice are not violated and the affected person is afforded an opportunity to be heard the Tribunal can dispose of the appeal in its own light. But of course the Tribunal should not act arbitrarily or capriciously but should adopt judicial standard....
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....ing that rule in the name of natural justice. The true rule is that an appeal is a continuation of the original proceeding and that rights of parties cannot be defeated by the form of the order but by the actual decision. (emphasis supplied) 14. It emerges that Rule 27 ought not to be applied narrowly and therefore we cannot agree with Mr. Hossain, that by permitting the Appellant- Assessee (respondent before the Tribunal) to invoke Rule 27 before the Tribunal, to challenge the ground decided against him, scope of the subject matter of appeal would get expanded. We must also bear in mind that jurisdictional issue sought to be urged by the appellant under Rule 27 is interlinked with the other grounds of appeal, and its adjudication would have a direct impact on the outcome of the appeal. The validity of the proceedings goes into the root of the matter and for this reason, the assessee should not be precluded from raising a challenge to that part of the order which was decided against him by the CIT(A). In this regard, it would be profitable to refer the following extract from the judgment of Sundaram & Co.(supra),where the court had also examined as to what constituted 'subject-ma....
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....as only against part of an order the appellate authority would have no jurisdiction to interfere with the other part which does not form the subject of the appeal. Ramachandra Iyer J., as he then was, after referring to the provisions of the Act and the Rules framed thereunder, observed thus: "The aforesaid rules, including the power to remand, would be governed by the provisions of section 33(4), and, therefore, the jurisdiction of the Tribunal would be circumscribed by the subject-matter of the appeal-the subject-matter of the appeal being that contained in the original grounds of appeal, together with such other grounds as may be raised by the assessee by leave of the Tribunal. As the right of the respondent is only to support the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner on other grounds, it would follow that the Tribunal would have no jurisdiction to pass an order, so as to permit a ground to be raised by the respondent which, if allowed, would make the position of the appellant worse than what it was before." 16. The principle underlying this decision is that the Tribunal has no power to enlarge the scope of the appeal before it by permitting either the appellant or t....
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....ith the previous permission of the Tribunal and the grounds urged by the respondent in support of the decree passed in his favour, even though the decision of the court, against which the appeal is filed, is against him." 18. In Pokhraj Hirachand v. Commissioner of Income-tax [[1963] 49 I.T.R. 293.] the same principle is reiterated." 19. We would like to disentangle the subject-matter of the appeal from the grounds upon which the appeal is raised or upon which the respondent would like to rely. As stated already the subject of an appeal is an item of dispute or controversy between the department and the assessee in regard to a particular question. Properly speaking, the subject of a tax appeal is the relief sought by the assessee and objected to by the department. The grounds are only missiles employed by the combatants to achieve their respective desired ends. It would not be possible to circumscribe the subject of the appeal by taking into account the rival contentions or the reasons or the grounds which are put forward either by the department or by the assessee. We have no doubt that in the light of the principles laid down by this court in V. Ramaswamy Iy....
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....er the same was beyond the scope of Section 153A of the Act was not the subject matter before the Tribunal and, thus, the Tribunal could not have entertained any plea in that regard. 6. The learned counsel for the Assessee also referred to the decision of the Supreme Court in Hindustan Coca Cola Beverage (P.) Ltd. v. Jt. CIT [2007] 293 ITR 226/163 Taxman 355. In that case, the Tribunal had decided to reopen an appeal decided earlier and permitted the Assessee to urge a ground, which had not been considered by the Tribunal while deciding the appeal. The decision of the Tribunal to reopen the matter was not appealed against by the Revenue but, the Revenue successfully assailed the final order passed by the Tribunal before the High Court, inter alia, on the ground that the matter could not be reopened by the Tribunal. In this context, the Supreme Court held that, "We have already noticed that the order passed by the Tribunal to reopen the matter for further hearing as regards ground No. 7 has attained its finality. In the circumstances, the High Court could not have interfered with the final order passed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal." 7. We find considerable merit in th....
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....theless, the decision must be in respect of the subject matter of the dispute. Indisputably, the Tribunal can examine all questions which relate to the subject matter of an appeal but, once an issue has attained finality and is not a subject matter of the dispute before the Tribunal, it would not be open for the Tribunal to reopen the issue on the pretext of examining a question of law." (emphasis supplied) 16. On the strength of the above reasoning, Mr. Hossain argues that in the present case as well, since the Appellant has not preferred any cross appeal or objections, it cannot now be permitted to urge jurisdictional grounds. We do not agree. The factual situation in Divine Infracon (supra) is entirely distinguishable from what we have in hand. We had, in fact, summoned the judicial record of the said case in order to understand the context in which the aforenoted observations were rendered by the court. In the said case, the assessment was framed under section 153A of the Act making an addition in respect of share application money amounting to Rs. 20,25,000/-. The CIT (A) took into consideration detailed submissions as to validity of the proceedings under section 153A, as is....
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.... assessee were fictitious and that the claim of deductions for interest on loans relatable to alleged purchase of shares as unjustified and accordingly disallowed the same. On appeal by the assessee, the AAC found that the loss claimed by the assessee in the transactions of shares was done with a collusive intent, when in fact profits were earned by the assessee and that the interest liability was anything but artificial. Finally, the AAC held the transactions to ine but enhanced the income of the assessee, while partially allowing the deduction on claim of interest with regard to loans. Aggrieved by the findings of the AAC, the assessee went in appeal before the Tribunal, seeking deletion of entire gross addition, while the department as respondent, relying on Rule 27 of the 1946 Rules, contended that in case the appeal was allowed the whole of the addition should not be deleted but only part of it to the extent disallowed by the AAC. The Tribunal while rejecting the department's contention under rule 27, set aside the whole enhancement as it found that the AAC made the enhancement based on no material evidence. Thus, a reference was made from the said decision to the High court u....
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....tter of the appeal is constituted by the original grounds of appeal and such additional grounds as may be raised by leave of the Tribunal. So much regarding the appellant. 17. Now, adverting to the rights of the respondent in an appeal, we start with the basic idea that, if a party appeals, he is the party who comes before the Appellate Tribunal to redress a grievance alleged by him. If the other side has a grievance, he has a right to file a cross-appeal (and under the Civil Procedure Code and the I.T. Act of 1961, a memorandum of objections). But, if no such thing is done, he is deemed to be satisfied with the decision. He is, therefore, entitled to support the judgment of the first officer on any ground but he is not entitled to raise a ground which will work adversely to the appellant. In fact such a ground may be a totally new ground, if it is purely one of law, and does not necessitate the regarding of any evidence, even though the nature of the objection may be such that it is not only a defence to the appeal itself but goes further and may affect the validity of the entire proceedings. But the entertainment of such a ground would be subject to the restriction that even if....
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....ter are interlinked, they should be considered together and the scope of the subjectmatter before the Tribunal should be construed accordingly. The position might be different where different grounds of appeal are dealt with by the AAC, which have no real inter-connection with each other though naturally they all bear upon particular assessment and though they may all broadly relate to the computation of income from the same head of source. But in a case where there are inter-connected grounds of appeal and they have impact on the same subject-matter, the scope of the appeal should be broadly considered in the correct perspective, While the appellant should not be made to suffer and be deprived of the benefit given to him by the lower authority where the other side has not appealed, equally the procedural rules should not be interpreted or applied so as to confer on an appellant a relief to which he cannot be entitled if the points decided in his favour on the same matter by the lower court are also considered as requested by the respondent. It seems to us that the position in the present case is somewhat similar. The ITO had treated certain transactions as sham and collusive, disa....
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....han it was before filing of the appeal. He submits that since the assessee had not assailed the order of CIT(A), it has attained finality qua him. Now, the assessee cannot be permitted to take away the benefit that accrued in favour of Revenue, except by way of an appeal or cross objections. He submits that an order adverse to the interest of revenue, by recourse to Rule 27 is impermissible as held in the aforesaid judgment. 19. We are of the view that Mr. Hossain's reading of the aforementioned Judgment is flawed. He is misconstruing the language employed in Section 254 (1) of the Act (corresponding to section 33(4) of the Indian Income-tax Act 1922). The word 'thereon' used in section 254 (1) of the Act, gives power to the Appellate Tribunal to pass such orders thereon as it thinks fit, implies that the tribunal would confine itself to the subject matter of appeal only. Under Rule 11 of the ITAT Rules, an appellant can, by leave of the Tribunal, urge or be heard in support of any ground not set forth in the memorandum of appeal, and the Tribunal, in deciding the appeal, would not be confined to the grounds set forth in the memorandum of appeal. This, however, does not mean that ....
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.... to support the order under appeal. The aforesaid expression also suggests that recourse to Rule 27 would only be available in case the remedy of appeal is otherwise available with the Respondent, and he has elected not to avail the same. In other words, in case a Respondent would not have such a right [of filing a cross appeal or cross objection], then he would not have the option to invoke the said provision. This brings us to the more fundamental question regarding the scope of aforesaid rule at the instance of the Respondent who is invoking the same. The scope and ambit of the aforesaid provision can be gathered from the remaining part of the said rule to the effect "may support the order appealed against on any of the grounds decided against him". A plain reading of the aforesaid expression indicates that a Respondent can support an impugned order on any of the grounds which were decided against him. Now, if we apply the aforesaid provision to the situation before us, we can easily discern that the Appellant-assessee- on the basis of Rule 27, was urging before the ITAT that the initiation of reassessment may be declared as invalid. Therefore, by invoking Rule 27, the assessee ....
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....appeal that are pressed at the hearing of the appeal. With this clarity, we do not find any merit in the submissions of the Revenue that the assessee had accepted order of CIT (A), or that the issue of maintainability had attained finality. We also do not find that by such an interpretation, the scope of Rule 27 is expanded or that it would be contrary to Section 253 (4), or that it would render the provision relating to cross objections redundant and otiose. In Sundaram &Co. (supra),the High Court observed that the reason for such a rule [Rule 27] was that when a decision is favorable to a person and comes to be challenged by his adversary, the person must be in a position to support the decision on every ground urged before the deciding authority whether or not it found favor, else such a person would be a victim of wrong reasons if no such freedom was given. In fact, the court has further held that even if Rule 27 as under the 1946 Rules had not been enacted, scope for invocation of the principle underlying the rule would still be possible based on principles of natural justice. This is the essence of the proceedings in appeal before the ITAT which unfortunately has been complet....
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....ccordingly, on the basis of a report from the ITO, he determined the market price of the land was Rs. 1,12,056/- and on that basis determined the net receipts at Rs. 14,814/- and decided the appeal accordingly. The department preferred an appeal before the Tribunal. In the appeal, the assessee invoked Rule 27 of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1946 to support the order on the ground that the transaction was not an adventure in the nature of trade, a ground having been decided against the Respondent. The Tribunal took the prayer to be of fundamental nature, destroying and not supporting the order of the AAC and disallowed it. The Tribunal held that the price paid by the assessee for purchasing the land in dispute should be taken to be the cost price and remanded the case for determining it and then arriving at the amount of net receipts. The assessee applied to the Tribunal for referring the case to the High Court under Section 66 (1) of the Act. The question on reference to the High Court was "Whether on a proper construction of rule 27 of the Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1946, the assessee-respondent having not appealed against the order of the Appellate Assistant Commission....
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....ty to be met by the other; so the analogy of a suit, part of which may be decreed and part rejected, does not apply to an assessment proceeding. A dispute may arise in an assessment proceeding about certain receipts being income or not income or the assessees being entitled to a certain deduction or being not entitled to it and the assessment order is passed after deciding this dispute. The dispute may be decided partly in favour of the assessee and partly against him. But since the assessability is indivisible the order assessing the income is treated as one indivisible order and the facts on account of which the various receipts are held to be assessable income are treated as various grounds of attack and the various facts on account of which deductions or exemptions are allowed or receipts are not treated as assessable income are treated as grounds of defence. So an assessment order is based upon allowing and disallowing grounds of attack and of defence. An appeal to the Tribunal whether by the department or by an assessee is like an appeal by a defendant or a plaintiff from a decree accepting or rejecting the entire claim of the plaintiff. There is no scope for any cross-object....
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....ground of attack that might have been rejected by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner but it cannot ask for an increase in the assessed income; it can ask for an increase only by appealing. If the department files an appeal, which must be for an increase in the assessed income, the subject-matter of the appeal is the increase claimed by the department and the assessee can urge any ground of defence, even though it might have been rejected by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, for showing that there should be no increase. That he is not liable to be assessed is a ground for showing that there should be no further assessment. Whole includes part and if no receipt is assessable the particular receipt claimed by the department to be assessable also is not assessable and the department's appeal can be resisted on this ground. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner rejected this ground of defence and holding him assessable assessed his income. But since the non-liability to assessment on any income includes the non-liability to assessment on a particular receipt he can object to the inclusion of the receipt in his assessable income on the ground that he is not liable to be assessed....
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....easons. Two orders not mutually exclusive have been maintained even though they are based on mutually exclusive reasons: vide Dunn v. United States [76 L.Ed. 356 : 284 U.S. 390.], Bartkus v. Illinois [3 L.Ed. 2d. 684 : 359 U.S. 121.], Hoag v. New Jersey [2 L.Ed. 2d. 913 : 356 U.S. 464.] and In re William Barron [10 Criminal Appeal Reports 81.] . It is also irrelevant to consider what relief could have been allowed to the assessee if this ground of defence is allowed to be urged by him in the department's appeal if the appellant does not ask for it. No relief can be given to an assessee unless he asks for it and is entitled in law to get it; the Tribunal has no jurisdiction to give him any relief though he may be entitled to it, if he does not ask for it in the appeal. The power conferred upon it by section 33(4) is certainly very wide but is so wide only within the subject-matter of the appeal. However wide it may be, it is limited by the scope of the appeal. It cannot travel outside its scope and pass any order even though it thinks it a fit order. It has to pass an order on the appeal, i.e., in respect of the subject-matter of the appeal. The order that it thinks fit must be ....
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....xxx xxx 13. In the result I hold that the assessee could contend that the recepits were not profits of a business at all, but for the purpose of showing that the department was not entitled to succeed in the appeal, i.e., to an increase in the assessed income and not for the purpose of claiming the relief of the quashing of the assessment order. In other words, so long as it did not ask for the quashing of the assessment order its plea that the receipts were not profits ought to have been entertained." (emphasis supplied) 24. Similar is the view taken in the case of Principal Commission of Income Tax, Vadodara - II v. Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. 2017 86 taxmann.com 148 (Gujarat). The brief facts of the said case are that the Respondent - assessee, a company registered under the Companies Act was engaged in various businesses including manufacturing pharmaceuticals. For relevant assessment years, the assessee had filed the returns of income computing the same in terms of Section 115 JB. The AO issued notices for reopening of the assessments and ultimately framed reassessment by making various additions. In appeal, the assessee c....
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....oner is at large before the Tribunal, the respondent before the Tribunal would be entitled to defend the order of the Commissioner on all grounds including on grounds held against him by the Commissioner without filing an independent appeal or cross-objection. 12. Rule 27 of the Rules is akin to Rule 22 Order XLI of the Civil Procedure Code. Sub-rule (1) provides that any respondent, though he may not have appealed from any part of the decree, may not only support the decree but may also state that the finding against him in the Court below in respect of any issue ought to have been decided in his favour; and may also take any cross-objection to the decree which he could have taken by way of an appeal. In case of Virdhachalam Pillai v. Chaldean Syrian Bank Ltd.AIR 1964 SC 1425 in context of the said Rule the Supreme Court observed as under: "32. Learned Counsel for the appellant raised a short preliminary objection that the learned Judges of the High Court having categorically found that there was an antecedent debt which was discharged by the sui tmortgage loan only to the extent of Rs. 59,000/- and odd and there being no appeal by the Bank against the finding that the balance....
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....ntly lost sight of the fact that the assessee had succeeded before the Commissioner (Appeals). The appeal had been allowed and the penalty levied by the assessing officer deleted in entirety. In fact, there was no occasion for the assessee to feel aggrieved and hence, it was not necessary for the assessee to prefer an appeal. The position in law is well settled that a cross objection, for all intents and purposes, would amount to an appeal and the cross objector would have the same rights which an appellant has before the Tribunal. 18. Section 253 of the Act provides for appeal to the Tribunal. Under sub-section (1), an assessee is granted right to file an appeal; under sub-section (2), the Commissioner is granted a right to file appeal by issuing necessary direction to the assessing officer; sub-section (3) prescribes the period of limitation within which an appeal could be preferred. Section 253(4) of the Act lays down that either the assessing officer or the assessee, on receipt of notice that an appeal against the order of Commissioner (Appeals) has been preferred under sub-section (1) or subsection (2) by the other party, may, notwithstanding that no appeal had been filed agai....