Appeal to High Court – Condonation of Delay – the Two Revenue Boards have no Co-ordination.
It is said that in Government, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. In Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise V/s. Hongo India (P) Limited & Another reported in , the Supreme Court had clearly held that in Central Excise cases the High Court has no power to condone delay in filing appeal.
Finance Bill, 2009 proposes to amend the Central Excise Act and Customs Act to provide for the power to High Court to condone delay with retrospective effect to undo the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Hongo India case.
But what about Income Tax? The Income Tax Act has a Section 260A similar to Section 35G of the Central Excise Act. Now will the Hongo India case apply to Income Tax cases? If so, why the Government did not propose an amendment in the Income Tax Act in the Finance Bill? Apparently the CBDT is not aware of the Hongo India case and the CBEC has not told them. They forget the fact they share the same Finance Minister! What would have been the FM's reply if an MP asked him why there was no similar retrospective amendment in the Income Tax Act? Fortunately not many MPs read the Finance Bill and this time around the FM had not given them much time.
Anyway the Bombay High Court has held that the Hongo India case is applicable to Income Tax cases and the High Court has no power to condone delay. Now this Section 260A of the Income Tax Act also has to be amended with retrospective effect – and we may have to wait till the next Budget for that.
We will bring you the High Court order tomorrow.