IL & FS Engineering And Construction Company Limited Vs DCIT (ITAT Hyderabad)
When NCLAT Says “Stay”, Even Tax Appeals Must Wait — Fourteen Cross-Appeals Dismissed with Liberty to Revive
The Hyderabad Bench of the ITAT has dismissed fourteen cross-appeals filed by IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company Ltd. and the Revenue in view of an operative interim order of the NCLAT restraining the institution or continuation of proceedings against IL&FS and its 348 group companies. The dismissal was only in limine, with liberty to both parties to seek revival after the NCLAT proceedings are concluded or the interim restraint is vacated.
The appeals concerned AYs 2009-10 to 2015-16 and involved eight appeals by the assessee and six appeals by the Revenue. They had travelled through an unusual procedural history.
The Tribunal had originally disposed of the batch of sixteen cross-appeals through a consolidated order dated 19.09.2022. At that stage, it dismissed the appeals in limine by applying sections 13 and 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, apparently proceeding on the assumption that Corporate Insolvency Resolution Proceedings were pending against the assessee-company.
The assessee thereafter filed miscellaneous applications pointing out that the factual assumption underlying the order was incorrect. IL&FS was a financial service provider, and no application for commencement of CIRP had been filed or admitted against it u/s 7, 9 or 10 of the IBC. The resolution process concerning the IL&FS group was being undertaken under sections 241 & 242 of the Companies Act, 2013, and not under the IBC.
