Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + AT Income Tax - 2022 (6) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2022 (6) TMI 1450 - AT - Income TaxFaceless appeals procedures - Validity of order passed by the National Faceless Appeals Centre (NFAC) with no oppourtnity provided to present case - whether NFAC has erred in not granting an opportunity to the appellant bank to present the case through the video conferencing as specified under the Faceless Appeals Scheme 2020, provided u/s 250 (6B) of the Income Tax Act? - HELD THAT:- In the Hon'ble Supreme Court's five-judge constitutional bench's landmark judgment, in the case of CIT v. Vatika Townships Pvt Ltd. [2014 (9) TMI 576 - SUPREME COURT] the legal position in this regard has been very succinctly summed up by observing that "(i)f a legislation confers a benefit on some persons but without inflicting a corresponding detriment on some other person or on the public generally, and where to confer such benefit appears to have been the legislators object, then the presumption would be that such a legislation, giving it a purposive construction, would warrant it to be given a retrospective effect" Hon'ble Supreme Court has observed that "This (the foregoing analysis) exactly is the justification to treat procedural provisions as retrospective", that, "In Government of India & Ors. v. Indian Tobacco Association [2005 (8) TMI 113 - SUPREME COURT] the doctrine of fairness was held to be a relevant factor to construe a statute conferring a benefit, in the context of it to be given a retrospective operation" and that "The same doctrine of fairness, to hold that a statute was retrospective in nature, was applied in the case of Vijay v. State of Maharashtra & Ors. [2006 (7) TMI 648 - SUPREME COURT] - It was held that where a law is enacted for the benefit of the community as a whole, even in the absence of a provision the statute may be held to be retrospective in nature." Their Lordships also noted that this retrospectively being attached to benefit the persons, is in sharp contrast with the provision imposing some burden or liability where the presumption attaches towards prospectivity. What logically follows from the law so settled by a constitutional bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, is that when an opportunity of presenting the case, through the video conferring in the faceless appeal proceedings, is now available to every taxpayer, on-demand, the same must also be held to be admissible in the proceedings, if so demanded by the assessee, in the old rules as well. Thus we deem it fit and proper to remit the matter to the first appellate authority after giving an opportunity for a personal hearing, in terms of rule 12 of the Faceless Appeals Rules 2021, for adjudication de novo in accordance with the law and by way of a speaking order. Ordered, accordingly.
|