Tax appeals must be filed on time, and the Supreme Court has called for an electronic system to track revenue litigation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday called for a system to track revenue litigation, lamenting the Union’s ‘500 or 600-day’ delay in submitting appeals, even in legitimate tax cases.
The Court urged the Centre to adopt a system similar to the Judiciary’s ‘Case Information System’ for monitoring revenue proceedings and litigation in revenue cases to which the Union of India is a party at all levels.
Judges Opinion
The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud and M. R. Shah had previously stated that the court’s notice had been directed to the fact that appeals in revenue proceedings were being filed with egregious delay, accompanied by an application for Condonation of delay, on several occasions. When the court declines to hear the plea, the officers explain their actions by claiming that, despite the fact that they had moved the court, the Supreme Court did not approve of the delay and dismissed the appeal.
“They claim that there is currently no methodology for determining whether appeals are filed on time. Why can you not have a CIS-like system like the Judiciary? The government can then easily track, monitor, and; retrieve data, and on the revenue side, the government can have its own data grid. It’s a big undertaking. You can profit from the judiciary’s 15-year trial and error experience “Justice Chandrachud was ordered to SG Tushar Mehta.
“With GST, the distinction between List I, List II, and List III has vanished. You can set up a solid system and bring all adjudication proceedings into it so that the government can keep track of them. You’ve already done everything you need to do in terms of filing returns, assessments, and so on; all you need to do now is take it a step further,” the judge continued.
It will make it possible to create a more business-friendly adjudication framework. It will send a message to businesses that; the government only wants tax debts paid and is not interested in harassing assessees through revenue officials. That’s the kind of weather we’re looking for!”
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