Merely because Tribunal confirmed findings of lower appellate authority it does not mean that Tribunal has acted illegally or irregularly: Delhi HC
REVENUE is in appeal against the Tribunal order.
It is the contention of the revenue that it was incumbent upon the Tribunal to have recorded its own findings rather than merely confirming the findings of the CIT (Appeals).
To this submission, the respondent assessee drew the attention of the Bench to the Supreme Court decision in the case of CIT v. K.Y. Pilliah and Sons: (), wherein, on a similar point having been raised, the Supreme Court observed as under: -
“The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal is the final fact-finding authority and normally it should record its conclusion on every disputed question raised before it, setting out its reasons in support of its conclusion. But, in failing to record reasons, when the Appellate Tribunal fully agrees with the view expressed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and has no other ground to record in support of its conclusion, it does not act illegally or irregularly, merely because it does not repeat the grounds of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner on which the decision was given against the assessee or the department. The criticism made by the High Court that the Tribunal had “failed to perform its duty in merely affirming the conclusion of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner” is apparently unmerited.”
The High Court, therefore, observed -
“4. In view of the observations of the Supreme Court in the case of K.V. Pilliah and Sons (supra) it is apparent that merely because the Tribunal confirmed the findings of the lower appellate authority it does not mean that the Tribunal has acted illegally or irregularly. In the present case, we find that the Tribunal had examined the findings of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in detail and had given an opportunity to the departmental representative to controvert or rebut the findings and conclusions arrived at by the CIT (Appeals). However, despite that opportunity, it is recorded in the order, a portion whereof was extracted above, that the departmental representative had not been able to controvert those findings and point to any material to enable the Tribunal to take a view other than the view taken by the CIT (Appeals). It is in these circumstances that the Tribunal concurred with the view taken by the CIT (Appeals). It is also not the case of the revenue that the departmental representative had made certain points controverting the findings of the CIT (Appeals), which have not been taken into account by the Tribunal. Had that been done, possibly, the revenue would have filed an application under section 254 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for rectification but that has also not been done. In these circumstances, we do not find any substantial question of law which arises for our consideration in these appeals….”
In fine, the Revenue appeals were dismissed.