Recently, in the case of Bharti Airtel Limited vs. ACIT, the ITAT Delhi, hauled up the Assessing Officer and the DRP for making and sustaining blatantly frivolous and unsustainable additions.
The Tribunal while allowing the appeal observed:
“If an action of the AO is so blatantly unreasonable that such seasoned senior officers well versed with functioning of judicial forums, as the learned DRs are, cannot even go through the convincing motions of defending the same before us, such unreasonable conduct of the AO deserves to be scrutinised seriously. If it is indeed a case of frivolous addition, someone should be accountable for the resultant undue hardship to the taxpayer -rather than being allowed to walk away with a subtle, though easily discernable, admission to the effect that yes it was a frivolous addition, and, if it is not a frivolous addition, there has to be reasonable defence, before us, for such an addition.
…. The fact that even such purely factual issues are not adequately dealt with by the DRPs raises a big question mark on the efficacy of the very institution of Dispute Resolution Panel. One can perhaps understand, even if not condone, such frivolous additions being made by the AOs, who are relatively younger officers with limited exposure and experience, but the Dispute Resolution Panels, manned by very distinguished and senior Commissioners of eminence, will lose all their relevance, if, irrespective of their heavy work load and demanding schedules, these forums do not rise to the occasion and do not deal with the objections raised before them in a comprehensive and effective manner.
Let us not forget that the majesty of law is as much damaged by not rendering justice to the conduct which cannot be faulted as much it is damaged by a wrongdoer going unpunished; not giving relief in deserving cases is as much of a disservice to the cause of justice and the cause of nation as much a disservice it is , to these causes, by granting undue reliefs. The time has come that a strong institutional check is put in place for dealing with such eventualities and de-incentivising this kind of a conduct.”
The Tribunals and Courts have passed severe strictures against the Tax Officers, DRP and the First Appellate Authorities from time to time, against their high handed actions. However, it appears that the Revenue Officers have become immune and insensitive to such criticism by the Tribunals and the Courts. Many times such high handed actions (including High Pitched Assessments, as in Bharti’s case, repetitive appeals, unjustified reopening of the assessments, grossly wrongful and wilful attachment of bank accounts and other properties and forcible recovery of taxes etc. ) amount to nothing but Fiscal Terrorism, eroding the Citizen’s Trust and faith in the Tax Administration. It appears that some Senior Revenue Officers consider themselves not accountable to any one and to be above the Law.
It is high time that the Finance Minister and the CBDT should institutionalise processes for taking action against such errant Tax Officials, particularly those against whom strictures/adverse comments have been passed by various Appellate Authorities
Yours sincerely,,
Tarun Singhal.
