Panel 3 :Tax Litigation - A Government / Revenue Perspective

1. TAX LITIGATION :
A GOVERNMENT COUNSEL
PERSPECTIVE
MODERATOR’S OPENING
COMMENTS
Sujit Ghosh – Advocate
Delhi High Court & Supreme Court
Partner & National Head,
Advaita Legal

2. 1
CBDT - Circular dated 7 February, 2012
“My Dear Chief Commissioners/ Director Generals of lncome Tax (Inv.)
and Commissioners/ Directors (International Taxation).
I have taken over as Chairman at a time when Revenue Collections
seem to be far away from the budget target with less then two months
at hand.
Among the parameters of performance in your area, achievement of
revenue collection target will obviously be given the highest
weightage while writing your APAR by reporting officers and reviewing
officers and will also be a major factor while considering placements
during AGT 2012.
I trust that each of you understands that achieving the budget target is
non-negotiable.”

3. 2
UOI v KK Dhawan AIR 1993 SC 1478
- Criteria prescribed for vigilance
1. Where the officer had acted in a manner as would reflect on his
reputation for integrity or good faith or devotion to duty
2. If there is prima facie material to show recklessness or misconduct
in the discharge of his duty
3. If he has acted in a manner which is unbecoming of a government
servant
4. If he had acted negligently or that he omitted the prescribed
conditions which are essential for the exercise of the statutory
powers
5. If he had acted in order to unduly favour a party
6. If he had been actuated by corrupt motive however, small the bribe
may be

4. 3
Bom HC – Sairang Developer’s case
“We do not find how Officers lower down in the hierarchy can take
decisions to file Appeals and that too against the decision of the
Tribunal. The tendency not to accept any adverse verdict on facts
results in frivolous Appeals being filed in this Court. That causes huge
loss to the public exchequer and results in wastage of precious
judicial time of this Court. All this ought to have been discouraged
long time back. The High Court has not adopted a strict approach and
that has possibly encouraged the Revenue in filing Appeals to
challenge essentially findings of fact and with regard to matters which
should stand concluded at the level of the authorities”
Dharmadhikari . J , April 2014

5. 4
Bom HC – L&T’s case
The Revenue officers must realize that just like other powers a
executive power conferred in them is in the nature of a Trust. They
hold office as trustees of the public at large. They deal with public re
and public money and that cannot be wasted in such frivolous
litigation. We, therefore, dismiss these appeals with costs quantified
at Rs.1,00,000/ each. Costs shall be paid to the Maharashtra State
Legal Services Authority, Mumbai within a period of four weeks from
today
It would be open for the superior/competent authority to recover the
costs personally from the officer responsible and equally take
disciplinary action against him ……

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