NEW DELHI: With the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) fixing the threshold for filing appeal in the Supreme Court at over Rs 1 crore, hundreds of cases in which the tax effects were less than that amount have been dismissed by the top court, thereby cutting down pendency of cases.
In the last one month, a Bench headed by Justice A K Sikri relied upon the July circular by CBDT to dismiss scores of tax cases. The circular stated that pending appeals or special leave petitions should be withdrawn on priority to enable the department to focus on high-value litigations.
“The (SC) Registry has listed these matters on the ground that the tax effect is less than `1 crore and, therefore, as per the Circular of the CBDT, these are not pressed by the Income Tax Department and are to be dismissed,” noted the Bench while wrapping up more than 200 cases in a single order.
“In these appeals the tax effect is less than `1 crore... These appeals are, accordingly, dismissed. However, it will be open to the I-T Department to seek review in any of these matters, if it is pointed out that the tax effect is more than `1 crore,” the order stated.
The court directed the registry to maintain a separate list of cases where the assessees had filed appeals and also another list where although the tax effect is less than Rs 1 crore, the cases are not covered under the CBDT circular.