| Heading | : | How to Draft CIT / ITAT Appeal & Procedure |
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How to Draft CIT / ITAT Appeal & Procedure
Drafting Appeal and Procedure in Income Tax Appeals before CIT (Appeals) and ITAT
Drafting of Statement of Facts and Grounds of appeal before Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) and Income-tax Appellate Tribunal.
The Income-tax Rules, 1962 ( the Rules) only provides that an appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) shall be made in Form No. 35 and that the form of verification shall be signed and verified by the person who is authorised to sign the return of income under section 140 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) (Rule 45) . However, Income-tax (Appellate Tribunal )
Rules, 1963 ( the Tribunal Rules) specifies as to the contents of the memorandum of appeal. Rule 8 mandates that every memorandum of appeal shall be written in English and shall set forth, concisely and under distinct heads the grounds of appeal without any argument or narrative and such grounds shall be numbered consecutively. Rule 47 of the Rules prescribes Form No. 36 for an appeal to the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (the Tribunal) and Form No.36A for filing memorandum of cross-objections. Both the memorandum of appeal and memorandum of cross-objections are to be verified by the
person specified in Rule 45 as narrated above. Form No. 35 requires to set out a statement of facts along with the ground of appeal. No statement of fact is required to be filed with the memorandum of appeal to be filed with the Tribunal. This is for the reason that the annexures to the memorandum of appeal to be filed before the Tribunal includes Form No. 35 in which statement of facts are narrated. Therefore, it is necessary to present the statement of facts in such a manner so as to clearly bring out the issues in the assessment/penalty proceedings leading to the order under challenge. Rule 22 of the Tribunal Rules provides that memorandum of cross-objection shall be numbered as an appeal and all the rules so far as may be, shall apply to such appeal.
A specimen draft of grounds of appeal is as under:
“On the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law the Assessing Officer (or ‘ the Commissioner of Income–tax (Appeals)’ where an appeal is filed before the Tribunal against the order of Commissioner (Appeals)) erred in …….without appreciating...................... ”.
A prayer should be made for deletion or addition/disallowance after taking relevant ground as under :
“The Appellant prays that the addition/ disallowance of Rs. made in respect of/out of...................... be deleted.”
And at the end the Appellant should crave leave for variation or withdrawal of grounds of appeal as under:
“The Appellant craves leave to add, amend , alter vary and / or withdraw any or all the above grounds of Appeal.”
If the statement of facts /grounds of appeal are separately annexed then the same should be signed by the Appellant.
Page Contents
1. Procedure in appeal
2. Appeal fees
3. Who can sign the appeal memo
4. Presentation of appeal
5. Time for filing an appeal
6. Delay in filing an appeal
7. Payment of admitted tax
9. Death of an assessee
