Pursuant to the public criticism by the Finance Minister at the mindless litigation undertaken by the department causing loss of crores of rupees to the nation (see Fret Not, Mr. FM, About Appeal-Filing Mania & Grasim superseded .. but whither accountability?), the CBEC issued a Circular to streamline the processing of departmental litigation before the Courts and Tribunal.
The Directorate General of Income Tax (Legal & Research) has now issued a directive to regulate the filing of Special Leave Petition (SLPs) before the Supreme Court. It has been stated:
“3. The objective of the Board is to file SLP in suitable and deserving cases within the period of limitation. Henceforth, the delay in submission of proposal for filing SLP would be analysed in every case in the Directorate and put up to the Member (A&J) for fixation of responsibility. The CIT is primarily responsible to submit the proposal in time. He cannot merely point out delay by the AO or Counsel. He has to explain action taken by him against officers responsible for delay and steps taken by him to prevent recurrence of such delay in future.
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5. The compliances requires a little of follow up by officer looking after judicial work and monitoring by the CIT. The CsIT have an obligation to be careful and alert in judicial matters. In case of any doubt, they must get in touch with the DIT (L&R) looking after their charge for assistance preferably through Lotus Note for quick action.”
The directive directs the officers to pay proper attention to avoid any “unpleasant situation“.
Directive Dated 20.10.2010 On Filing Of Dept SLPs (160.4 KiB, 917 hits)
@vswaminathan Says:
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:31 am
to read DGIT (x CGIT)
vs
Pathetically, the reported directive of the CGIT, in essence, does not appear to be in line or compatible with the rightful direction sought to be given by the FM. He has, apparently yielding to the largely obtaining public opinion for decades now, expressed his strong view and remorse against “the mindless litigation undertaken by the department causing loss of crores of rupees to the nation”. On the contrary, the main thrust or emphasis of the CGIT’s directive seems to be to ‘pin’ (fix) the responsibility to file SLPs within the permitted time limit. Instead of stressing as to why it is of importance or imperative not to file SLPs except in “suitable and deserving cases”, that too objectively and after a careful /due consideration.
vswaminathan