The Authorized representative and parties appearing before the various Benches of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, in person, are hereby informed that the Hon’ble President has been pleased to direct that with effect from 1st March, 2011, wherever there is a change in the address of the parties to the appeal, as provided in Column Nos. 10 and 11 of Form No. 36, the appellant shall file a revised Form No. 36, dully filled up, giving the new address of the parties, duly verified in the same manner as required by Rule 47 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962. The revised Form No. 36 shall specify the appeal Number, as originally assigned, or, in the event of non-availability of such number, the date of filling of the Appeal. No cognizance of change of address of the parties shall be taken, for any purpose, unless a revised Form No. 36 is filed, as aforesaid. The address furnished in the revised Form No. 36 shall be deemed to be the address of the parties for the purpose of service of all notice/orders

I agree with the point made by the Members that it is not proper to continue with the Special Bench when the same issue is pending adjudication for the earlier years before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court. I am of the humble opinion that such continuance will not be in conformity with judicial discipline, propriety and decorum. The appropriate course will be to disband the Special Bench and allow the regular Bench to decide the issues in accordance with law

A list of Special Bench matters pending in the Mumbai Bench of the Tribunal as of 1.11.2009 is available for download. The list of All – India Special Bench matters is available here.

Hearing of all matters, in which Special Bench decision in the case of Daga Capital Management Pvt.Ltd. is sought to be reviewed by the assessee, should not be heard and blocked upto January, 2010 or till the disposal of the matter by the Bombay or any other High Court, whichever is earlier.

As per order of the Hon’ble President, ITAT dated 10.07.09, the above case will be heard by a Special bench comprising of Shri G.E. Veerabhadrappa, V.P. (DZ), Shri C.L. Sethi, JM and Shri K.D. Ranjan, AM to hear and dispose of the questions on the following points:

1. “Whether, the said Notification (Notification No. GSR 389E dated 03.06.2009) applies to the Members who have retired prior to the date of publication of the Notification?

The President, the Senior Vice-President, the Vice-President and the Members of the Tribunal shall not practice before the Tribunal after retirement from the service of the Tribunal.

ITAT has always been known for the high quality of its orders. Our orders have received praise form judge including sitting judge of the Supreme Court, who sit in appeal over them. However, of late I am concerned to note that some of the High court has criticized our lack of quality, detailed reasoning, non-recording of basic or vital facts and the arguments etc. I know that these are only exception to the general rules that we pass well-reasoned and speaking order. I am also aware of the pains and efforts taken by Members in general to pass quality orders and that wherever they slip, it is not intentional. It is however, unfortunate that adverse publicity is sought to be given only to the small percentage of orders, which suffer in quality. I am afraid that an Uninformed person may draw wrong conclusions form such publicity and may be misled to think that we are, in general not passing proper and speaking orders. That is a situation, which I want to avoid, if I can help it. I want to remove this impression whither it is carried by higher courts or by the public or the members of the Bar. I, therefore, thought it necessary to take measures to ensure that every single order we pass meets the requirements of a speaking order. One such erasure which was actively debated and decided in the conference of the Vice-Presidents recently held in Mumbai was to reduce the monthly disposal-target to 50, but with the understanding the a Members will pay utmost attention to the quality of the orders they pass and will not give room for any criticism from any quarters.