RANI PALIWAL Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal by the assessee filed under s. 260A of the IT Act, 1961 (for short, 'the Act') is directed against the order dt. 26th Sept., 2002, passed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as 'the Tribunal'), whereby the appeals filed by the Revenue against the order of Commissioner of Income-tax(Appeals) [for brevity, the CIT(A)] were allowed and the claim of the assessee rejected.

(2.) ACCORDING to the learned counsel for the appellant, the following three substantial questions of law are involved in the appeal and, therefore, the same deserves to be admitted :

(3.) AS regards question No. (i), it is urged that in view of the Board's Circular No. F-279/126/98- ITJ, dt. 27th March, 2000, the appeals filed by the Department were not maintainable because the tax effect did not exceed Rs. 1,00,000 in each assessment year and, therefore, according to the circular, the Department could not prefer an appeal. From the perusal of the order of the Tribunal, it is clear that no such plea was raised before the Tribunal and, therefore, we are not allowing the assessee to raise this plea for the first time before us. In any case, the Board's circular is only an instruction issued to the IT authorities not to file appeals where the tax effect is less than Rs. 1,00,000. The Tribunal is not bound by any such instruction and once the Department files an appeal, the Tribunal was bound to decide the same on merits. This question, in our opinion, is not a question of law. Re. (ii) :