The Bombay High Court in the case of PCIT v. M/s. Sungard Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd held that the seat of the Tribunal would decide the jurisdiction of the Court to which the appeal would lie under the Act.
The issue in the present case is with respect to the maintainability of the present appeal filed by the Revenue.
It has been contended by the respondent-assessee that the impugned order from which the present appeal has been preferred has been passed by the Bangalore Bench of the Tribunal and that the appeal would lie before the Karnataka High Court and not before the present Court.
The appellant-revenue, on the other hand, contended that it is the situs of the AO which will determine the High Court have jurisdiction over the orders of Tribunal under Section 260-A. The sites in the present case after the date of the order transferring the assessee’s case from the Assessing Officer (AO) at Bangalore to AO at Pune was Bombay.
The discussions revolved around the interpretation of Sections 116, 120, 124, 127, 260A, 269. It was concluded that Sections 124 and 127 on the basis of which the Revenue based its argument only applies to the Authorities listed in Sections 119 of the Act and not the High Courts. Further, the Hon’ble Court reiterated that appeals from the orders passed by the Tribunal to the High Courts would be governed by the provisions of Chapter XX specifically sections 260A and 269.
On the basis of the above discussion, the Bench comprising of Justices Akil Kureshi and M.S. Sanklecha held that a harmonious reading of the above provisions would require that the seat of the Tribunal (in which State) would decide the jurisdiction of the Court to which the appeal would lie under the Act. Thus, in the present facts where orders were passed by the Bangalore Bench of the Tribunal (even if the assessment was transferred to Pune), clearly, the appeal would lie only to Karnataka High Court at Bangalore. The Court hence dismissed the appeal on the preliminary issue holding in favour of the assessee.
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