INCOME TAX ACT, 1961

Section 31 Section 36

Prohibition of Benami Transactions Act, 1988 - Vacancies, etc., not to invalidate proceedings of Appellate Tribunal - Whether Single Member Bench can clarify order passed by Division Bench -

Issue arose as to whether a single Member Bench is empowered to pass any order reviewing/modifying/clarifying an order passed by Division Bench. Held: Section 36 has taken care of the situation where there are vacancies, for various reasons, in the Appellate Tribunal. The statute provide that no Act or proceedings of the Appellate Tribunal shall be invalid merely by a reason of, any vacancy in or any defect in the constitution of the Tribunal; or any defect in the appointment of a person Acting as a Member of the Tribunal; or any irregularity in the procedure of the Tribunal not effecting the merits of the case. So in view of the aforesaid provisions the proceedings before the Single Bench is not invalid/illegal. If one reads provisions of sections 31, 36, 40, 46 and 71 together then it is clear that a Single Member Bench can hear the appeals filed under the Act and pass such orders as deem fit to meet the ends of justice. Section 40(2)(f) has empowered the Appellate Tribunal to review its decisions. The vacancies in the Appellate Tribunal will not come in the way to invalidate proceedings of this Tribunal in respect of appeals filed under the said Act. The legislative intention of providing section 36 is to mitigate such circumstances. Single Member Bench can clarify the orders passed by Division Bench by following the doctrine of necessity.

REFERRED : Election Commission of India v. Doctor Subramaniam Swami (1996) 4 SCC 104, Talluri Srinivas v. UOI (2018) 254 Taxman 261 (Del) : 2018 TaxPub(DT) 1167 (Del-HC), Kawality Restaurant & Ice-Cream Co. v. Commr. of VAT, Trade & Tax Department (2012) 37 STT 579 (Del), Radio Next Webcastion (P.) Ltd. v. UOI [W.P. (C) No. 5893 of 2018, dated 27-9-2018], Himachal Sorang Power (P.) Ltd. v. Powergrid Corp of India Ltd. [Review Petition No. 3/RP/2018, dated 11-5-2018], P. Suseela v. University Grants Commission (2015) 8 SCC 129 and .