New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The government law officers are "not appointed on the basis of their merit. They are appointed on some other consideration. There is also coalition politics in their appointment", the Supreme Court said Monday.
The court's oral observation came while it expressed anguish over mistakes in drafting of petitions and poor knowledge of some government advocates.
"You appoint people who can't draft (petitions). There are so many mistakes," said Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia.
Chief Justice Kapadia told Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran: "Please see you appoint advocates who can draft (petitions) properly and have some knowledge of income tax laws."
He observed that government law officers "are not appointed on the basis of their merit. They are appointed on some other consideration. There is also coalition politics in their appointment".
The bench of Chief Justice Kapadia and Justice A.K. Patnaik was hearing a petition by the Income Tax department challenging an adverse high court order on tax demand against Citi Bank.
The court took exception to the inordinate delay in the filing of the government's appeal challenging adverse verdicts in cases involving high tax demands.
The court made its observations while perusing the affidavit by L.N. Pant, Director of Income Tax, International Taxation, who gave reasons for an inordinate delay in challenging adverse court orders involving the huge amount of tax demands.
The affidavit said that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had set up a committee to inquire into alleged inordinate delay in filing appeals against adverse court order in the matter involving the tax demand against the Citi Bank.
The affidavit said that the committee was asked to "enquire into the reasons for delay" in the filing of special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court and high courts.
The committee was asked to "fix the responsibility for such delay" in the Citi Bank matter.
The affidavit said that the delay in challenging the adverse verdict in Citi Bank case occurred during the period when the "standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the CBDT fixing timeline for filing appeals/SLP were not in place".
The tax department affidavit said that the situation had "drastically improved" after the SOP came into effect.
The court was also told that the tax department had developed a software to track the date on the proposal to file an appeal against an adverse order on tax demand and the file's movement till it reached the law and justice ministry.
The apex court Sep 14 observed: "In large number of cases, we find a peculiar phenomenon. In cases where huge revenue/demand from the department is involved, invariably there is inordinate delay in filing appeals before the high court under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and in filing special leave petitions before this Court."
The quantum of tax demands locked in litigation before the apex court and high courts is to the tune of Rs.58,636 crore.
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