TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (7) TMI 439
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.... Dispute Resolutions Panel-II is legally justified in excluding two comparables considered by the TPO namely M/s E-Infochips Bangalore Limited and M/s Infinite Data Systems Pvt. Limited which are functionally similar to the assessee company? 3. Whether on facts and in circumstances of the case, the Ld. Dispute Resolution Panel-II is legally justified in holding that strict funciational comparability is required by ignoring the OECD guidelines that for TNMM relaxed comparability is required? 4. That the appellant craves leave to add, alter, amend or forgo any ground/(s) of appeal either before or at the time of hearing of the appeal. 3. Facts of the case may be concisely described as that the return for A.Y. 2010-11 declaring income of Rs. 3,09,32,409/- filed electronically on 08/10/2010 and in the course of time the case was selected for scrutiny assessment through CASS and in pursuation there of notices u/s. 143 (2),143(2) and 142(1) of the Act was issued and duly served upon the assessee and in response to same necessary details/documents, as required, were produced and after thorough examination as per section 144C of the Act, draft assessment order passed o....
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....r commitment, teamwork and initiatives that we have brought forward, adding immense value to client processes and products. Chipmates have a strong growth path defined for them, with specific soft-skills training modules - Lagoon, Pegasus and Altius - to groom leaders for the future. 'At einfochips we are determined that our growth should empower the ones in need. Every year we contribute 1% of our profits for development in education and healthcare." Further, from the details of services, it was observed that this company is also into Board Designs and mention to that effect on the website is as under: "einfochips design services consists of custom board designs, development platforms, reference designs and FPGA based designs to suit customer-specific requirements. These services cater to requirements ranging from small-footprint, power-optimized solutions to high-end, rugged systems built around various embedded processors and DSPs. Our hardware and board design supports efficient processor inter-communications and memory access operations, as well as cost-effective PCB architecture and manufacturing testobility. elnfochips has strong technological expertise....
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....tructure management services." An effort was made to refer to the website of the company. It appears that the company does not have website of its own and from the information available in public domain it is observed that this company has amalgamated w.e.f. 01/04/2012 with M/s Infinite Infosoft Services Private and with Infinite Computer Solutions (India) Ltd. It is not known which of the activities appearing on the website are in respect of the comparable M/s Infinite Data Systems Pvt. Ltd and which others pertain to other amalgamating companies. Therefore, the reliance made by the TPO on the website is not accepted by this Panel in this case. Further, the information available from the annual report refers to the activity of the company into technical consulting, design & development of software, maintenance, systems integration, implementation, testing and infrastructure management services. The taxpayer however is rendering services like E-business & web, Application services, Mobile & PDA, Business Intelligence and reporting, Systems integration, IT infrastructure, Product related, Customer relationship management & telephony services as appears from the pro....
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....ection 253(3A) of the Act, the limitation for filing appeal before this Hon'ble Tribunal expire on 21.02.2015 and therefore, the present accompanying appeal is delayed by 1021 days. 4) The matter regarding filing of appeal in the impugned case for AY 2010-11 got missed due to the reason for this omission are as follows:-oversight which was an inadvertent omission. The reason for this omission are as follows :- Due to immense workload of time barring assessments, and time barring litigation before various judicial forums, the matter regarding filing of appeal in the impugned case for A.Y. 2010-11 got missed due to oversight which was an inadvertent omission. Due to restructuring in the Department in November 2014 as a result of which there was some bifurcation in the erstwhile Circle 13(1) involving a lot of movement of assessment records and all attention of the officials was occupied with the smooth transition to the restructuring phase The right given to the Department for filing appeal against the DRP's directions remained on the Statute for a limited period of time due to which it took some time for the necessary internal procedures to ge....
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....ondonation of delay. 13. Foremost question exists before us for consideration that whether the appellant established that there was sufficient cause with appellant in not filing appeal in prescribed period? As per section 253(5) of the Act, if the appellant establishes that there was sufficient cause for not filing appeal within prescribed period, then the Tribunal may condone the delay and admit the appeal for adjudication, unless and until it is demonstrated that there was sufficient cause that prevented the appellant from exercising his legal remedy for filing appeal within prescribed period of sixty days, thereafter, delay cannot be condoned, without there being compelling grounds. A sufficient cause for condoning delay, as per established legal precedents, requires adequate reasons that prevented an applicant from filing an application in the proceedings within the prescribed time limit and here sufficient cause includes bonafide conduct also and where gross negligence, deliberate inaction or lack of bona fides exist, then it should not be inferred that there was sufficient cause with the appellant for not filing the appeal within the prescribed limit as lack of bona fides ....
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....rayers. 15. Whatever reasons assigned for condonation the delay, not even lacks of bona fides but also it appears that there was a negligent conduct in the form of oversight adopting casual approach. The concept of liberal approach in condonation of delay has to encapsulate the conception of reasonableness and it cannot be allowed unfettered free play because the conduct of party relating to it's inaction or negligence are relevant factors to be taken into consideration. 16. In the case of Rajneesh Kumar & Another Vs. Ved Prakash, in SLP (civil) Nos.- 935-936 of 2021, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India held that the object of the statutes of limitations is to compel a person to exercise his right of action within a reasonable time as also to discourage and suppress stale, fake or fraudulent claims. The relevant para no. 12 and 13 reproduced as under: "12 As regards the law of limitation, we may refer to the decision of this Court in Bharat Barrel & Drum MFG Go. u. The Employees State Insurance Corporation. (1971) 2 SCC, 860, wherein this Court held as under:- "The necessity for enacting periods of limitation is to ensure that actions are commenced within a p....
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....ue that that when there is no any gross negligence or deliberate inaction or lack of bona fide, liberal approach has to be adopted to advance substantial justice but the claim on account of impersonal machinery and inherited bureaucratic methodology of making several notes cannot be accepted and the law of limitation undoubtedly binds everybody, including the Government. The government departments are under a special obligation to ensuring performance of their duties with diligence and commitment and condonation of delay is an exception which should not be used as an benefit for the government departments. 18. In the course of hearing, the Ld. AR vehemently contested the condonation of the delay by relied upon the order of Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in the case of Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax-7 vs. M/s SH Tech Park Developers Pvt. Ltd. The relevant part of this order is reproduced as under: '6. Further the Supreme Court in Government of Maharashtra (Water Resources Department) Represented by Executive Engineer vs. Borse Brothers Engineers and Contractors Private Limited [(2021) 6 SCC 460] had observed:- "58. Given the object sought to be achieved under both ....
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.... difference between a "good cause" and a "sufficient cause" and observed that every "sufficient cause" is a good cause and vice versa. However, if any difference exists it can only be that the requirement of good cause is complied with on a lesser degree of proof than that of "sufficient cause". 11. The expression "sufficient cause" should be given a liberal interpretation to ensure that substantial justice is done, but only Ed. The matter between two asterisks has been emphasized in original. so long as negligence, inaction or lack of bona fides cannot be imputed to the party concerned [Ed.: The matter between two asterisks has been emphasised in original.. whether or not sufficient cause has been furnished, can be decided on the facts of a particular case and no straitjacket formula is possible. (Vidc Madanlal v. Shyamlal Madanlal v. Shyamlal, (2002) 1 SCC 535 and Ram Nath Sao v. Gobardhan Sao [Ram Nath Sao v. Gobardhan San, (2002) 3 SCC 195].) 12. It is a settled legal proposition that law of limitation may harshly affect a particular party but it has to be applied with all its rigour when the statute so prescribes. The court has no power to extend the period o....
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....Rehman Antulay v. R.S. Nayak, (1992) 1 SCC 225: 1992 SCC (Cri) 931. 15. The law on the issue can be summarized to the effect that where a case has been presented in the court beyond limitation, the applicant has to explain the court as to what was the "sufficient cause" which means an adequate and enough reason which prevented him to approach the court within limitation. In case a party is found to be negligent, or for want of bona fide on his part in the facts and circumstances of the case, or found to have not acted diligently or remained inactive, there cannot be a justified ground to condone the delay. No court could be justified in condoning such an inordinate delay by imposing any condition whatsoever. The application is to be decided only within the parameters laid down by this Court in regard to the condonation of delay. In case there was no sufficient cause to prevent a litigant to approach the court on time condoning the delay without any justification, putting any condition whatsoever, amounts to passing an order in violation of the statutory provisions and it tantamounts to showing utter disregard to the legislature." (emphasis supplied) 59. l....
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....xx 61. In a recent judgment, namely, State of M.P. v. Chaitram Maywade [State of M.P. v. Chaitram Maywade. (2020) 10 SCC 667: (2021) 1 SCC (Civ) 111: (2021) | SCC (Cri) 120: (2021) 1 SCC (L&S) 871 this Court referred to Postmaster General [Postmaster General v. Living Media (India) 1.td.. (2012) 3 SCC 563: (2012) 2 SCC (Civ) 327: (2012) 2 SCC (Cri) 580: (2012) 1 SCC (L&S) 6491, and held as follows: (SCC pp. 668-69, paras 1- 5) "1. The State of Madhya Pradesh continues to do the same thing again and again and the conduct seems to be incorrigible. The special leave petition has been filed after a delay of 588 days. We had an occasion to deal with such inordinately delayed filing of the appeal by the State of Madhya Pradesh in State of M.P. v. Bherulal [State of M.P. v. Bherulal. (2020) 10 SCC 654: (2021) 1 SCC (Civ) 101: (2021) 1 SCC (Cri) 117: (2021) 1 SCC (L&S) 84] in terms of our order dated 15-10-2020. 2. We have penned down a detailed order in that case and we see no purpose in repeating the same reasoning again except to record what are stated to be the facts on which the delay is sought to be condoned. On 5- 1-2019, it is stated that the Government A....
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....: AIR p. 365, para 12) "12. It is, however, necessary to emphasise that even after sufficient cause has been shown a party is not entitled to the condonation of delay in question as a matter of right. The proof of a sufficient cause is a condition precedent for the exercise of the discretionary jurisdiction vested in the court by Section 5. If sufficient cause is not proved nothing further has to be done; the application for condoning delay has to be dismissed on that ground alone. If sufficient cause is shown then the Court has to enquire whether in its discretion it should condone the delay. This aspect of the matter naturally introduces the consideration of all relevant facts and it is at this stage that diligence of the party or its bona fides may fall for consideration; but the scope of the enquiry while exercising the discretionary power after sufficient cause is shown would naturally be limited only to such facts as the Court may regard as relevant. It cannot justify an enquiry as to why the party was sitting idle during all the time available to it. In this connection we may point out that considerations of bona fides or due diligence are always material relevant w....