LAHORE:
The Superior Court of Lahore (LHC) was informed on Monday that a considerable amount of RS2 billion was helpful in the litigation in the interior court of the Court of Appeals (ATIR) in recent years.
The Ministry of Law said in its response to a petition against tax laws (amendment) that the cases were caught by a variety of reasons, including the arbitrary constitution of banks, the inadequate number of banks, the delay in fixing cases and the elimination of appeals.
LHC judge, Jawad Hassan, occupied the request in which certain modifications to the appeal procedure provided under the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) had been challenged. The judge summoned the official of the Federal Income Board (FBR) relevant on March 25 to explain the amendments.
During the process, Judge Hassan pointed out that the prescribed procedure of Pecuniary Jurisdiction in appeals. However, he added: “Through the contested amendment, an appeal forum has been removed.”
According to the judge, the FBR instituted a significant number of cases presented in this court mainly due to the lack of reference to the provisions of the relevant law, absence of an adequate hearing, issuance of orders in Slip -Shod and not apply a judicious mind.
Due to these deficiencies, this court was often forced to return the cases to the commissioners (appeals) for a new award in accordance with the law, said Justice Hassan. “This situation is consuming the valuable time of this court, which leads to an increase in the accumulation of fiscal references, which negatively affects the hearing and the elimination of other cases,” he added.
The judge mentioned that the FBR did not face a financial barrier in the presentation of fiscal references, because he was exempt from paying any judicial fees, while an ordinary litigator had to pay RS50,000 by reference.
“This results in a clear discrimination against the citizens of Pakistan, depriving equal access to justice, which will violate the fundamental rights of the guaranteed public under articles 4, 10-A and 37 (d) of the Constitution,” said Judge Hassan.
Judge Hassan also commented that the last amendments to the ITO presented an extraordinary burden in this court, as currently, there was only one division bank for tax references in Bahawalpur, one in fine, two in Rawalpindi and three in the main seat in Lahore.
“This court has repeatedly emphasized that the orders approved by commissioners (appeals) are often incomplete, lack reasoning and suffer serious deficiencies, which finally results in litigation before this court,” Judge Hassan observed.
However, the defense defended the amendment, saying that the contested provisions had been inserted to discourage unnecessary or frivolous appeals, which would help optimize the process and reduce the load
