Taxation is the most litigated subject matter by the government which files a large proportion of its tax cases without application of mind, indicates research by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
Vidhi sampled 5000 randomly selected Special Leave Petitions since 2014, and found that 17 per cent were filed by the government – distributed almost equally between the Centre and the States. Of the 435 SLPs filed by the Central government, 392 were classified into various subject matter.
Of these 392 classified central government SLPs, 72 per cent were on the subject of taxation. Also, out of the 17 per cent – or 857 – SLPs filed by the government, 20 per cent – or 173 – were disposed of. Of this 20 per cent, 34 per cent were taxation SLPs, and out of these 34 per cent taxation SLPs, 65 per cent were dismissed without a hearing.
No notice was issued in these 65 per cent – or 39 – SLPs, Vidhi concluded from the absence of any advocates appearing on behalf of the parties against whom the government had filed these cases.
Vidhi noted in its report with the date: “The Central Board of Direct Taxes has already issued instructions (Circular No. 21/2015, dated 10 December 2015) to the Tax Department prescribing minimum monetary limits for filing appeals. In addition to this, measures to enhance the accountability of tax officials and a more strategic approach to government litigation in general are necessary to curb the frivolous and mechanical filing of appeals.”
After taxation, popular government litigation categories were land acquisition (37, or approximately 9 per cent), service matters (30, or approximately 8 per cent), and appeals against orders issued by the Armed Forces Tribunal (29, or approximately 7 per cent).
Vidhi had released its report on the research last week after which we reported on another part of its research: 70 out of the 100 Supreme Court judges, who retired as on 12 February 2016, took up post-retirement jobs with various permanent and ad hoc bodies and committees, with the greatest number taking up quasi-judicial posts