Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on: August 28, 2021, at 10:25 IST
The Centre has formulated a Committee to look over the revenue litigations which are pending before the Supreme Court for a long time.
The Committee constitutes representatives of the National Informatics Centre, the Law ministry, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIT) and the Department of Revenue.
The Committee will work on an electronic case management system through which they will monitor the Tribunals and the High Courts in order to provide for a time-bound mechanism for filing appeals in the Apex Court.
Earlier, the Division Bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah had ordered the Centre to come out with any solution for dealing with the delays in appeals, as the appeals for the direct and indirect taxes were being filed after the stipulated time of 60 days for regular appeals and 90 days for Special Leave Petition (SLP).
On Friday, the Apex Court issued directions to the Centre to come out with any solution pertaining to this very situation, the Court gave three more months to the Centre.
The Court said, “A committee has been constituted of various stakeholders to ensure due adoption of technology to streamline, monitor, and seamlessly integrate all phases of government litigation.”
The Bench further directed the Revenue Secretary to monitor and provide assistance to the Committee, both with regard to domain knowledge and technical assistance.
On 6th August the Court has expressed its immense displeasure towards the Centre not taking any action pertaining to this matter.
On the same day, the Court stated that “We find the recalcitrance on the part of the Ministry of Finance in the Department of Revenue unacceptable. However, before we take the next step of issuing a contempt notice, we give a last and final opportunity to the Union government to sort out the issue and come before this Court with a concrete plan of action, beyond circulars.”
The Order to formulate a Commission came after the expressed views of the Court on Centre’s inaction.
The Court further added, “The Union government, in the Department of Revenue must find an answer to this state of affairs by ensuring that matters which are required to be litigated are litigated with all necessary dispatch and matters not worthy of being pursued are set to rest.”
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