TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (11) TMI 652
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....t Year 2009-10. The appeal is admitted for considering the following Substantial Questions of Law: "1.Whether under the facts and circumstances of the case the Tribunal was right in upholding the order of the lower authorities that the share of the beneficiaries is indeterminate and therefore the appellant is liable for tax at maximum marginal rate? 2. Whether on facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the appellant is liable to deduct tax at source in respect of interest on borrowings, disregarding the fact the individual beneficiaries for whose benefit the funds have been borrowed do not have taxable income and are not liable to deduct tax at source? 3. Whether on facts and circumstances of the ca....
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....rest on borrowings, disregarding the fact the individual beneficiaries for whose benefit the funds have been borrowed do not have taxable income and are not liable to deduct tax at source? iii. Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the principle of mutuality does not apply to the appellant and that its income is liable to be taxed?" 3.Heard Mr.N.V.Balaji, learned counsel for the appellant/assessee; and Mr.J.Narayanaswamy, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the respondent/Revenue. 4.Before we go into the substantial questions of law, we are first required to decide as to whether the Tribunal could have rejected the assessee's appeal without following the decision in the case of ....
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....me Court in Union of India and Ors. vs. Kamlakshi Finance Corporation reported in (1992) 1 SCC 648 (SC), wherein the Court held as follows:- "6. ............The principles of judicial discipline require that the orders of the higher appellate authorities should be followed unreservedly by the subordinate authorities. The mere fact that the order of the appellate authority is not "acceptable" to the department - in itself an objectionable phrase - and is the subject matter of an appeal can furnish no ground for not following it unless its operation has been suspended by a competent court. If this healthy rule is not followed, the result will only be undue harassment to assessees and chaos in administration of tax laws." 7.Mr.J.Narayana....
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....taken into account by that Tribunal and must observe that if those facts had been taken into account by the former Tribunal the former Tribunal itself would have come to a different conclusion. Such a statement in the order of the succeeding Tribunal is required in the interest of comity of judicial precedents as well as in the maintenance of judicial decorum and decency. Otherwise, it will lead to an assumed superiority on the part of the succeeding Tribunal as if it had discovered something which had escaped the attention of the former Tribunal and it alone was able to find out the truth, while the former Tribunal was not able to do so." 9.The aforementioned decisions will clearly indicate that the methodology adopted by the Tribunal, w....