Procedural rules cannot be ignored even if litigant is Government/ Revenue and Revenue should not follow tendency of blaming Advocate or procedural rules for dismissal of appeal

In Pr. CIT vs. Parle Bisleri Ltd. [Notice Of Motion (L) No. 1672 Of 2017 in Income Tax Appeal No. 448 Of 2014, decided on 28.08.2017], briefly, there was a Notice of Motion seeking condonation of delay of 1128 days in challenging an order dated 1st November, 2014 of the Prothonotary and Senior Master. The further relief sought was to set aside this order and direct restoration of the above Appeal to the file of the Bombay High Court.

The Revenue brought an Appeal to Bombay High Court being Income Tax Appeal (L) No. 448 of 2014 to challenge an order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “J” Bench, Mumbai, dated 20.09.2013, for the assessment year 1998- 1999. This Appeal was lodged in the Court on 14.02.2014. On the date of its lodging, the same was listed before the Registry official. The Registry official checked the memorandum of Appeal and the annexures, and on 1.04.2014, recorded in writing the defects and deficiencies which need to be removed before the Appeal could be registered.

On 1.04.2014, the objections were endorsed on the memorandum itself. It is common ground that the Registry granted enough time to the official and the Advocate, who lodged this Appeal, to remove these office objections.

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