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2017 (9) TMI 1037 - HC - Income TaxTDS liability - payment to the parties who brought the samples for testing and reports at the assessee's door steps - arrangement as a principal to agent relationship - Tribunal assumes by terming the whole arrangement as a principal to agent relationship, that it is the appellant/assessee who is paying the money and therefore, for such services for which money is paid, the assessee is obliged to deduct tax at source Held that:- The appellant/assessee says that it is a sample testing laboratory. The samples are not collected from the patients directly by the appellant/assessee. Instead, the assessee renders services to those sample collectors who visit the patients and thereafter, the samples are brought for testing by such sample collectors to the appellant/assessee. There is no privity of contract between the appellant and the patients. Secondly, the sample collectors do not collect samples exclusively for the appellant and they are free to send the samples collected by them for testing to any other laboratories. Therefore, this is a principal to principal relationship. The decision of the coordinate Bench of the Tribunal at Delhi in the case of SRL Ranbaxy Ltd. (2011 (12) TMI 84 - ITAT DELHI ) would therefore, bind the authorities. We do not see how it is possible for us to uphold the order of the Tribunal and when it purports to decide two Appeals of the Revenue by this single paragraph conclusion. There is absolutely no discussion of the law and why the coordinate Bench decision rendered at Delhi is either distinguishable on facts or inapplicable. There is no discussion, much less any finding and conclusion that the order of the First Appellate Authority is perverse or is contrary to law. There are no infirmities, much less serious errors of fact and law noted by the Tribunal in the order of the Commissioner, which the Tribunal is obliged to and which order is therefore interfered by the Tribunal. The Tribunal should have, independent of the statements, referred to such of the materials on record which would disclose that the assessee has entered into such arrangements so as to avoid the obligation to deduct the tax at source. If the arrangements are sham, bogus or dubious, then such a finding should have been rendered. Therefore, we are most unhappy with the manner in which the Tribunal has decided these Appeals. We have no alternative but to set aside such order and when the last fact finding authority misdirects itself totally in law. It fails to perform its duty. It has also not rendered a complete decision. Once the Tribunal was obliged in law to examine the matter and reappraise and reappreciate all the factual materials, then it should have performed that duty satisfactorily and in terms of the powers conferred by law.
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