Appoint Competent Members in Tribunal
IN a recent Order, the High Court of Rajasthan expressed its anguish at the quality of orders passed by the ITAT. The High Court found the judgments of the ITAT to best ereo typed, non speaking, unreasoned, arbitrary and whimsical, that the Court was left with no option except to remand the matter back to the ITAT. So the High Court remanded 81 cases to the ITAT.
The Court observed,
"The ITAT is vested with all the powers of the Income Tax Authorities referred to under Sec. 131 by virtue of Sec.255(6). The same section further clarifies that any proceedings before the ITAT shall be deemed to be judicial proceedings within the meaning of Sections 193 and 228 and for the purpose of Sec.196 of the Indian Penal Code.The ITAT has also been deemed to be a Civil Court for all purposes of Sec. 195 and Chapter XXXIV of Code of Criminal Procedure. The ITAT,being a judicial body, while exercising judicial powers under the statute,is not empowered to employ its jurisdiction arbitrarily. Whatever it does,must be done in consonance with the sound judicial principles and in accordance with accepted doctrine applicable to judicial bodies. Any appeal against the order of the ITAT involving only a substantial question of law can be filed by either of the parties before the High Court, In the case, where no substantial question of law is involved,then order passed by the ITAT attains finality. Therefore, onerous duty is casted on the Tribunal to pass speaking, reasonable and ordersshorn of any arbitrariness.
The Tribunal is supposed to set out reasons in support of its decision by narrating fullfacts and discussing the issues in detail so that the person aggrieved knows why it has come to a particular conclusion."
The High Court noticed the observations of the Karnataka High Court in CIT Vs. Gauthamchand Bhandari :-
"We cannot avoid observing that of late the quality of orders that have come out from the Tribunal in exercise of its appellate power under section 256 of the Act are found to be wanting and in many respect and many a time the orders are very prefecture, even nonspeaking orders and has no correlation to the fact situation that prevails in a given case.
We also notice that the members of the Tribunal have developed an unhealthy habit of quoting totally unrelated judgments which are not applicable at all to the facts of the case, to pass orders not otherwise sustainable on facts or in law. We strongly deprecate such a tendency on the part of the members of the Tribunal, which is quite naturally a professional Tribunal comprised of expert members, one member from the Revenue side and another member from the accounting side, with considerable experience in their respective fields and to whom we can attribute expertise. We feel sorry that the confidence posed by the Legislature is not being justified by passing orders that are outcome from the Tribunal now-a-days. It is high time the method of recruitment to the Tribunal is also reviewed by the authority concerned and at least henceforth it is ensured that the members of some standing, integrity and competence are put in place as members of the Tribunal and not all and sundry.
The Legislature, particularly the Union Parliament may also take note of such tendency on the part of the Tribunal and ensure for suitable legislative measure so that the purpose and the object with which such Tribunals are constituted really subserve not only the interest of aggrieved assessee but also to ensure that the Revenue's interest is not simply scarified or jeopardized by errant members."
And the Gujarat High Court yesterday sent an additional sessions judge for training at the Judicial Academy because of his lack of knowledge of the laws on which he was delivering judgements.