The Supreme Court in the case Herbicides India Limited verses ACIT observed and has set aside the orders of Rajasthan High Court.
The Supreme Court in the case observed and has restored the assessee’s appeals by condoning the delay in filing the paper-book before High Court and observed that the assessee’s is entitled to have his appeals heard on merits.
The Division bench comprising of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Aravind Kumar in the case observed that as the Appeal No. 817 of 2008 is dismissed for noncompliance, the High Court was of the opinion that inconsistent orders cannot be passed and proceeded to dismiss even Appeal No. 816 of 2008 without examining the matter on merits. We are of the opinion that the Appellant is entitled to have his appeals heard on merits. The said court is of the opinion that the Appellant is entitled to have his appeals heard on merits.
In the present case, the Assessing Officer, AO passed on assessment order disallowing interest, which was confirmed by both the CIT(A) as well as the ITAT. The High Court in an appeal passed an order wherein the court directed the assessee to file the paper-book within a period of 15 days failing which appeal was to be dismissed without reference to the Court and since the paper-book was not filed within prescribed time, the Registrar dismissed the appeal.
Further, the High Court in the case observed and has dismissed the application moved for restoration of appeal. Even the review against the said order was dismissed by the court.
The bench in the case observed that the appeal for the Assessment Year 2001-02 stood dismissed for non-filing of paper-book within the prescribed time.
The High Court in the case observed and has opined that the inconsistent order could not be passed for Assessment Year, AY 2002-03, hence proceeded to dismiss the appeal without examining the matter on merits.
Adding to it, the bench stated that remarking that the High Court would have condoned the delay in filing the paper books for AY 2001-02 had the matter been taken up along with AY 2002-03.
The Apex Court in the case observed and has allowed the appeal.
The Apex Court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case directed the High Court to take up the appeals for both the years together after giving an opportunity to the parties for proper adjudication and determination on merits.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the application.
The counsel, Advocate Manoj Swarup, Advocate Abhishek Swarup, and Advocate Chetan Sharma appeared for the Appellant.
The counsel, ASG N. Venkatraman, Senior Advocate Arijit Prasad represented the respondent.