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2021 (12) TMI 785 - HC - Income TaxHigh Court jurisdiction u/s 260A - Application for condonation of delay - objection as raised on the ground that the order impugned in all these appeals have been passed by the Delhi Tribunal over which this Court would not have any jurisdiction - correctness of the orders impugned which were admittedly passed by the Tribunal located at Delhi - HELD THAT:- This issue is no longer res integra and has been answered by the Division Bench of this Court in A.B.C. India Limited [2002 (3) TMI 35 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] revenue's reference application under Section 256(1) of the Act was rejected by the Tribunal at Guwahati. Subsequently, the assessments were transferred to the Commissioner under the jurisdiction of the High Court at Calcutta. The High Court at Calcutta passed order under Section 256(2) and the assessee prayed to recall of the said order contending that the said order was passed without jurisdiction. The said submission made by the assessee was sustained by the Division Bench holding that the question of cause of action would be irrelevant since the Court would be determining the question since determined by the Tribunal of another State which, according to law, is bound by the decision of the Supreme Court at the first place and then by the decision by the jurisdictional High Court. The decision in ABC India Ltd. [2002 (3) TMI 35 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] was followed in J.L. Morrison India [2004 (6) TMI 17 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] and it was pointed out that if the High Court of Calcutta was to exercise jurisdiction over the order passed by the Tribunal located outside the jurisdiction of this Court, which would create a judicial anomaly with regard to the precedence that the order passed by the Court, would be binding upon the Tribunal of another State and this would create an anomalous situation with regard to pure question of law. It was held assumption of jurisdiction of such a case would amount to judicial impropriety and irregularity. To the same effect is the decision of Akzo Nobel India[2014 (3) TMI 1191 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] which followed the decision in ABC India Ltd. and J.L. Morrison India Ltd. In the said decision, it was pointed out that Section 260A provides that appeal shall lie to the High Court from an order passed by the Appellate Tribunal. Appellate Tribunals are located in every State except these cases where an Appellate Tribunal may have been entrusted with the jurisdiction of more than one state. It was further pointed out that the word "High Court" used in Section 260A has to be understood in the light of Section 269 which provides that the "High Court" means in relation to any State, the "High Court" for that State. We hold these appeals are not maintainable before this Court as submitted by the learned Counsel appearing for the respondent/assessee in respect of an appeal filed in the assessee's group company's case [2020 (1) TMI 1541 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] - Similar objection was raised by the assessee and the same was sustained by order dated 28th January 2020 and the appeal was dismissed as not entertainable on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. In the light of the above, we hold that all these appeals are not maintainable and consequently, the applications for condonation of delay as well as the appeals are rejected as not maintainable. However, we grant liberty to the appellant/revenue to file the appeals before the appropriate High Court.
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