S.K. Bahadur vs Union of India (UOI)

Badar Durrez Ahmed, J.—These four appeals pertain to the same assessee and raise common issues and are therefore being disposed of by this common order. When the appellants appeals before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal were pending, the appellants writ petition being W.P.(C) NO. 9262/2006, which had been filed independently, came up for hearing before this Court. On 26-5-2006 the appellant was permitted to withdraw the petition with liberty to raise all the relevant questions before the Tribunal and seek redress after the Tribunal decides the case. The exact order passed by this court on 26-5-2006 reads as under:

After hearing the matter at some length, Mr. Anand submits that the petitioner would, for the present, withdraw this petition reserving liberty for the petitioner to raise all relevant questions before the Tribunal and seeks redress after the Tribunal decides the case.

Dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty prayed for.

It is pertinent to point out that the appellant had raised the issue of jurisdiction in the writ petition and had made specific prayers with regard to the assessment proceedings under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

It was the contention of the appellant that these proceedings were bad in law for want of jurisdiction. It is, therefore, obvious that when the appellant was granted liberty by this court to raise all the relevant questions before the Tribunal, those questions included the issues raised by the appellant in the writ petition and, particularly, relating to the question of jurisdiction.

Thereafter the appellant filed an application dated 12-6-2006 before the Tribunal for deciding the issue of jurisdiction as a preliminary issue. Unfortunately, the Tribunal has not passed any order on that application and disposed of the appellants pending appeals without a reference to the pleas raised by the appellant with regard to jurisdiction pursuant to the liberty granted by this court by virtue of the order dated26-5-2006.

The appellant has made a submission that he may be permitted to withdraw the present appeals with liberty to approach the Tribunal u/s 254(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 inasmuch as the Tribunal has not given a decision on his application raising the question of jurisdiction for which liberty had been granted by this Court. The appellant has also sought liberty of this court to approach this court if ultimately the Tribunal takes a decision against him.

In these circumstances, we permit the appellant to withdraw these appeals with liberty to approach the Tribunal u/s 254(2) of the said Act and also grant the appellant liberty to approach this court after the Tribunal has passed an order on that application and the appellant is aggrieved by it. The appellant would also be granted liberty in such eventuality to take up the grounds taken in the present appeals before this Court.

With the aforesaid directions, the appeals are dismissed as withdrawn. The appellant states that he would be moving the rectification application u/s 254(2) within four weeks. It is expected that the Tribunal shall dispose of the same as expeditiously as possible.