Section 260A – Appeal to High Court – Power of High Court to condone delay in filing appeal – Delay in filing appeal by Revenue – General principles – No reasonable explanation for delay – Delay cannot be condoned

Section
260A – Appeal to High Court – Power of High Court to condone delay in filing
appeal – Delay in filing appeal by Revenue – General principles – No reasonable
explanation for delay – Delay cannot be condoned

Revenue
filed notice of motion for condonation of delay of 318 days in filing appeal.
The Bombay High Court dismissed the notice of motion and held as under:

“i)   Section 260A(2A) of the Income-tax Act, 1961
allows the Court to admit an appeal beyond the period of limitation, if it is
satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not filing the appeal in time. It
cannot be accepted that in appeal by the Revenue, the delay has to be condoned,
if large amounts are involved, on payment of costs. Each case for condonation
of delay would have to be decided on the basis of the explanation offered for
the delay, i.e., is it bona fide or not, concocted or not or does it evidence
negligence or not. The object of the law of limitation is to bring certainty
and finality to litigation. This is based on the maxim “interest reipublicae ut
sit finis litium”, i.e., for the general benefit of the community at large,
because the object is every legal remedy must be alive for a legislatively
fixed period of time. Therefore, merely because the respondent does not appear,
it cannot follow that the applicant is bestowed with a right to the delay being
condoned. The officers of the Revenue should be well aware of the statutory
provisions and the period of limitation and should pursue its remedies
diligently.

ii)   There was no proper explanation for the delay
on the part of the applicant. In fact, the affidavit dated 16/09/2017 stated
that, the applicant handed over the papers to his subordinate, i.e., the Deputy
Commissioner. This was also put in as one of the reasons for the delay. This
even though they appeared to be a part of the same office. In any case, the
date on which it was handed over to the Deputy Commissioner was not indicated.
Further, the affidavit dated 16/09/2017 also did not explain the period of time
during which the proposal was pending before the Chief Commissioner of
Income-tax, Delhi for approval. The Chief Commissioner of Income-tax was also
an officer of the Department and there was no explanation offered by the Chief
Commissioner at Delhi or on his behalf, as to why such a long time was taken in
approving the proposal. In fact, there was no attempt to explain it. The
applicant being a senior officer of the Revenue would undoubtedly be conscious
of the fact that the time to file  the
appeal was running against the Revenue and there must be an averment in the application
of the steps he was taking to expedite the approval process. Further, there was
no proper explanation for the delay after having received the approval from the
Chief Commissioner at Delhi on May 29, 2017. No explanation was offered in the
affidavits dated 16/09/2017 and for having filed the appeal on July 20, 2017,
i.e., almost after two months. The delay could not be condoned.”