TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (3) TMI 1427
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....GA/1/2021 In ITAT/151/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/151/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/152/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/152/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/153/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/153/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/154/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/154/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/155/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/155/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/156/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/156/2021, IA NO. GA/2/2021 In ITAT/157/2021, IA NO. GA/1/2021 In ITAT/157/2021 For the Appellant : Mr. Smarajit Roychowdhury, Adv., Mr. Tilak Mitra, Adv., Mr. Soumen Bhattacharjee, Adv., Mr. Vipul Kundalia, Adv., Mr. Om Narayan Rai, Adv., Mr. Prithu Dudheria, Adv. For the Respondent : Mr. Subash Agarwal, Adv. ORDER The Court : In all these applications the revenue has sought for condonation of delay in filing the appeals before this Court under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act, in brevity) challenging the orders passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata (the Tribunal). 2. For the purpose of disposal of the applications filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, it may not be necessary to go into the factual aspects nor as to what would be the....
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....which is as of now is conservatively estimated as more than Rs.38,000 crores. Therefore, it is submitted that the Court should take all these factors and exercise discretion and condone the delay. Further it is submitted that the Hon'ble Supreme Court in miscellaneous application No.21 of 2022 in Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) No. 3 of 2020 by order dated January 10, 2022 clarified that the period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 shall stand excluded in computing the period of limitation prescribed under various enactments for the purpose of instituting proceedings before various forum. It is submitted by learned standing counsel that though in some of the cases the benefit of the order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court may not be directly applicable, yet the Court can take into consideration that on account of the pandemic situation, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has excluded the period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 for the purpose of computing limitation for filing petitions or appeals etc. Therefore, it is submitted that a broader view may be taken in the matter, considering the sensitivity of the issue and wide ramification which has been brought out on account of the investigation,....
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....nt particularly when the delay is directly a result of negligence, default or inaction of that party. Reliance was also placed on the decision in the case of Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank Limited vs. Appellate Authority under the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, Madurai and others in MANU/TN/0726/1989 for the proposition that on account of the delay, the valuable rights of the respondent would be affected and there can be no presupposition that no prejudice would be caused by condonation of the delay. Reliance was also placed on the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Office of the Chief Post Master General and others vs. Living Media India Ltd. and others in MANU/SC/0132/2012 wherein it was held that the claim on account of impersonal machinery and inherited bureaucratic methodology of making several notes cannot be accepted in view of the modern technologies being used and available as the law of limitation undoubtedly binds everybody including the Government. Learned counsel also referred to the decision of this Court in the case of PCIT vs. Nitu Agarwal in ITA No. 4 of 2021 dated 10.12.2021 and submitted that in the said case there was delay of 331 days in filing the ....
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....have consistently adopted the same approach and the bottom line of the decisions is that the facts of each case has to be considered before either condoning or refusing to condone the delay. 9. Bearing such legal principle in mind, we proceed to examine as to whether the delay in filing the appeals by the revenue has to be condoned or not. Undoubtedly, investigation has been commenced by the Income Tax Department and a report has been drawn during April, 2015. We are informed that the investigation is still in progress. Parallelly the assessing officers throughout the country have been making assessments on the assessees who had effected transactions. In these penny stock companies, some of the assessments have attained finality, some are pending as appeals before the appellate authority or the Tribunal or the respective High Courts. 10. In the background of these facts, we have to take note of not only the length of the delay, but the overall facts and circumstances leading to such delay. In many of the matters before us, the tax effect may be less than the threshold limit fixed by the CBDT for pursuing appeals by the Department. The Department initially, applying the Circul....