SPEEDY JUSTICE IN TAX MATTERS — PENDENCY OF TAX APPEALS ARE REDUCED IN MUMBAI.
Our Constitution provides for an independent and efficient justice delivery system. No doubt there are delays in disposing the tax matters. On analysing the causes for delay one will find that delay is not because of courts but it is due to tax administration. In tax matters 70% of appeals are by tax department.
Statistics shows that, the Tax Benches of Bombay High Court, Hon’ble Justice Mr. F.I. Rebello and Justice Mr. J.P. Devadhar and Justice F.I. Rebello and Justice R.S. Mohite in the period 21st June, 2007 to March 2008, has disposed of 6,513 tax matters and admitted 963 matters (total 7,476) matters (Click here for details). The court working days for the period was 180 days giving average 415 matters per day has been disposed of. It may be for the first time such a large number of tax matters were disposed of. This has helped to reduce the pendency of tax matters before the Bombay High Court. At present the pendency of tax appeals is 2,600 and references is 2,100. If tax bench sits for full week to hear only the direct tax matters, the pendency of tax matters can be substantially reduced, this will help the assessee as well as the department.
The members of the Bar have also observed that lot of time of the court is lost just to find out what has happened in the earlier year, the department is not able to answer whether appeals are filed or not. To overcome such a situation the ITAT Bar Association has made a suggestion, that while filing an appeal the tax department and the assessee should file a fact sheet with certain particulars in the specimen proforma (Click here). If the same is furnished it will save substantial time of court and will benefit the assessee as well as department. It will also help to group matters involving common issues. This will also help the process of computerisation. If the experience is satisfactory the same may be implemented in other High Courts and also Apex Court. If Central Board of Direct Taxes takes some initiatives all pending tax matters before various High Courts can be computerised and within two years of filing of appeal the matters can be heard and disposed of. This will save tax-payers money and possibly we may not require proposed National Tax Tribunal. A thought for debate.
Dr. K. SHIVARAM
Editor-in-Chief AIFTP
The judgement of the Delhi Bench of the Tribunal in 
1. The State Commission, Delhi, by its order dated 10-3-2006 in Appeal No. 1815 of 2000 held that the services rendered by the Lawyer would not come within the ambit of Section 2(1)(o) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, as the client executes the power of attorney authorizing the Counsel to do certain acts on his behalf and there is no term of contract as to the liability of the lawyer in case he fails to do any such act. The State Commission further observed that it is a unilateral contract executed by the client giving authority to the lawyer to appear and represent the matter on his behalf without any specific assurance or undertaking.
There is a popular commercial by a furniture maker running on television which uses a courtroom as the setting to demonstrate the long-lasting abilities of its plywood. Two young lawyers are arguing a matter about a buffalo which apparently caused damages to the Plaintiff, prompting him to seek damages from the owner of the buffalo. The Respondent’s demand is that the buffalo, being the alleged culprit, must be produced in court as a witness, leading to an uproar in the court and prompting the judge to adjourn the matter. Months turn to years and decades go by and the lawyers and the judge, now sprightly octogenarians, are still at the same stage at which they were at the beginning of the case. The plywood table stands mute spectator to the going-ons in the court room with the voice-over saying tongue-in-cheek “Chalta Rahe, Chalta Rahe” (It goes on and on). 
Indian businessmen have made a remarkable achievements in the global business scenario, however, Indian professionals are yet to make the presence felt in the global scenario. Bar Council of India does not permit to have a partnership with chartered accountants profession or company secretaries. In the era of globalization apart from knowing the law, issues relating to Accountancy and Companies Act are very much essential for the mergers and acquisition. Therefore it is the time to think, why not permit all three professionals to come together and render the services under one umbrella. For appearing before the Court it can be stated that only lawyer partner can represent similarly, for audit certificate can be given by Chartered Accountant, and procedure relating to Companies Act may be handled by the Company Secretary. If all three professionals are allowed to have partnership it will help to render better services and Indian professionals can meet the challenges of global competition. A thought for debate and consideration!
We are still waiting with bated breath for the new Income-tax Code which was supposed to be released by December 2007. The Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the Code is an exercise of the future and is not aimed at amending the existing Income Tax Act 1961. “This report is about a brand new Income Tax Act, which if all goes well, will come into force from Apr 1, 2008, that is assessments made for 2009-10,” he said. He added that the new Act would hopefully come into force from April 2008 subject to Parliament approving it “well in time”. 