COURT: | ITAT Mumbai |
CORAM: | PP Bhatt (President), Pramod Kumar (VP) |
SECTION(S): | 254(1), Rule 34(5)(c) |
GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
CATCH WORDS: | limitation period |
COUNSEL: | Gaurav Kabra, Jascinta Zimik Vashai |
DATE: | May 14, 2020 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: | May 15, 2020 (Date of publication) |
AY: | 2013-14 |
FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
CITATION: | |
Rule 34(5) of the ITAT Rules provides that “ordinarily” the order on an appeal should be pronounced within no more than 90 days from the date of concluding the hearing. A pedantic view of the rule cannot be taken. The period of 90 days should be computed by excluding at least the period during which the lockdown due to Covid-19 was in force. We must factor ground realities in mind while interpreting the time limit for the pronouncement of the order. Law is not brooding omnipotence in the sky. It is a pragmatic tool of the social order. The tenets of law being enacted on the basis of pragmatism, and that is how the law is required to interpreted |
In the light of the above discussions, we are of the considered view that rather than taking a pedantic view of the rule requiring pronouncement of orders within 90 days, disregarding the important fact that the entire country was in lockdown, we should compute the period of 90 days by excluding at least the period during which the lockdown was in force. We must factor ground realities in mind while interpreting the time limit for the pronouncement of the order. Law is not brooding omnipotence in the sky. It is a pragmatic tool of the social order. The tenets of law being enacted on the basis of pragmatism, and that is how the law is required to interpreted. The interpretation so assigned by us is not only in consonance with the letter and spirit of rule 34(5) but is also a pragmatic approach at a time when a disaster, notified under the Disaster Management Act 2005, is causing unprecedented disruption in the functioning of our justice delivery system.
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