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Judgment
The Revenue is aggrieved by an order dated 30th November, 2006 passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi Bench ''E'' in IT (SS) A. No. 158/Del/2003 relevant for the block assessment period 1st April, 1989 to 14th December, 1999. Proceedings were initiated against the Assessee on the basis of a statement of Shri S.K. Jain.
The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) as well as the Tribunal noted that the statement of Shri S.K. Jain was not made available to the Assessee nor was it granted any opportunity of confronting Shri S.K. Jain. In spite of this, the statement of Shri S.K. Jain was used against the Assessee.
It is a fundamental principle of law, which does not need reiteration, that a statement or a third person cannot be prejudicially acted upon without giving an opportunity to the person against whom it is intended to be used to contest the correctness of that statement. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) as well as the Tribunal nave merely applied this fundamental principle of law. In our opinion, no substantial question of law arises in this matter.
We find that the Revenue has been filing a large number of frivolous appeals to such an extent that out of all the Central Government departments in Delhi including the State Government, the Income Tax department is the largest litigant by almost five times. The Court is being unnecessarily burdened by frivolous appeals filed by the Income Tax Department. Under the circumstances, we impose costs of Rs. 3,000/- to be paid by the Income Tax department to the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee. The amount be paid by cheque within four weeks.