To our minds the present appeal is a prime example of meritless litigation for reasons best known to the few departmental officers having powers of directing authorization for filing appeals.

This over confidence of the concerned Departmental officers in filing an appeal completely devoid of merit prima facie shows that these officers endowed with the onerous task of handling Department's actions in litigation matters have willfully and deliberately failed to exercise their powers mindfully as required of them as per law and thereby abused government machinery to initiate a litigation which entails financial costs and tarnishes the image of the Department and also strains the government resources.

This obduracy and adamancy of the concerned officers in filing a meritless appeal only because officially they are entitled/empowered to do so, strikes a blow to the blind faith reposed in them by the tax administration in always acting fairly.

However only because of the conduct of few Departmental officers who appear to be unconcerned or rather mock the sincere efforts made by CBDT with impunity unmindful of the consequences to the system by their sense of entitlement the reputation of the tax administration suffers, this needs to be addressed at the earliest.

The entitlement of always believed to be acting in good faith cannot be abused by irresponsibly setting in motion the entire justice delivery system where admittedly there was no grievance to the AO.

The Assessing Officer including all the officers in the tax administration are functionaries of "the State" exist for "the State" and perform the functions of "the State". For this specific purpose they are entrusted with vast powers to discharge "the State functions". In the discharge of their onerous duties and responsibilities these officers are armed with wide and sweeping powers. The officers who have authorized the filing of the appeals and have filed the appeals have made a travesty of justice.

Mocking at the system by filing the appeals and highlighting the apathy of the Department by issuing specific instructions from time to time that necessary due diligence and caution is not being exercised while granting authorization for filing appeals and to pursue litigation only in deserving cases.

Even though the Revenue has indulged in frivolous meritless litigation, we desist from awarding costs considering the statement of the Ld. CIT DR that due care shall be taken in future.

It is our earnest hope and endeavour that having invited the attention of the Chairman, CBDT to this grave assault on the trust and reputation of fair play enjoyed by the tax administration the malaise is immediately addressed.