Supreme Court Of India
T.N. Civil Supplies Corporation. Ltd. vs. CIT
Sections 263
Asst. Year 1977-78
Mrs. Ruma Pal & B.N. Srikrishna, JJ.
Civil Appeal Nos. 6343 & 6344 of 2001
16th January, 2003
Counsel Appeared : A.K. Ganguly with V. Krishna Murthy, for the Appellant : R.P. Bhat with Preetesh Kapur, Amit Mahajan & B.V. Balram Das, for the Respondent
ORDER
BY THE COURT :
The question which had been referred to the High Court under s. 256(1) of the IT Act, 1961, read as follows : “Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the CIT had no jurisdiction under s. 263 to revise an order passed by the ITO with the approval of the IAC under s. 144B ?” The power to revise orders of the ITO under s. 263 of the IT Act, 1961, was sought to be limited by the appellantassessee by contending that the phrase “order passed by the ITO” in s. 263 excluded those orders passed by the ITO pursuant to the directions of the IAC under s. 144B which was then included in the Act. The High Court in its decision has followed its earlier decision in which it had referred to and relied upon the reasoning of several other High Courts on the same issue to negative the contentions of the assessee. Given the uniformity of interpretation by the several High Courts, it would not be appropriate to interfere with the decision of the High Court. In any event we are of the view that having regard to the subsequent amendments to the Act issued from time to time there was no scope for limiting the phrase “order passed by the ITO” in s. 263 to exclude orders, passed by the ITO on the directions of a superior authority either under s. 144A or 144B. The appeals are accordingly dismissed with no order as to costs.
[Citation : 260 ITR 82]
