Reducing Delay In Revenue Litigation : Supreme Court Directs Integration Of ITAT, CETSTAT & Other Tribunals With Technology Adopted

The Supreme Court recently directed for integration of the technology adopted to streamline and monitor all stages in government revenue litigation , to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) and other Tribunals too.Lauding the Committee constituted by the Centre for seamless integration at all stages of the revenue litigation involving the Union and Tribunals, the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna in their order said, "Pursuant to the earlier direction, the Committee has undertaken a comprehensive exercise, which needs to be appreciated."The Committee was further directed to coordinate with the President of the CESTAT to ensure that the same was achieved.The Top Court on August 27, 2021 had constituted a Committee for the purpose of facilitating the objective of ensuring that the litigation involving the Union of India and Tribunals constituted under revenue legislation is duly monitored to provide seamless integration at all stages by adopting Information and Communication Technology (ICT).Pursuant to Top Court's order Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh produced a note titled as "REDUCING DELAYS IN LITIGATION MANAGEMENT". Note On Reducing Delays In Litigation ManagementA. Stakeholders Of The CommitteeAs per the note, a Committee comprising the following stakeholders was constituted: Shri Ashish J. Shiradhonkar, Sr. Technical Director, NICShri Rajinder Kumar Kaul, Sr. Technical Director, NICShri R.K. Srivastava, Addl. Legal Adviser, MoL&JShri Pankaj Jain, Additional Commissioner, Directorate of Legal Affairs, CBICShri Gaurav Bansal, Joint Director, Supreme Court Cell, Directorate of Legal & Research, CBDTDr. N. Gandhi Kumar, Director (Coordination), Department of Revenue [Convenor]Functions Of The Stakeholders guiding the changes required in LIMBS to make it more effective for litigation management, integrating LIMBS with e-office, universal adoption of LIMBS and e-office in the relevant offices under Department of Revenueensuring integration of LIMBS with the IT system of Courts, Tribunals etc. including the e-Courts system of NICsuggesting changes in the IT solutions adopted in the Courts/Tribunals etc. that could significantly improve litigation management for suggesting other measures to remove roadblocks in efficient litigation managementfinalizing and operationalizing the effective system within three months from today and appraising the Supreme Court accordinglyChanges Introduced In Litigation Management System Of CBDT & CBICIt was further mentioned in the note after having detailed deliberations with all the stakeholders including NIC, the following necessary changes were brought in the litigation management system of CBDT and CBIC using IT: Recommendation 1 - Guiding the changes required in LIMBS Software to make it more effective for litigation management:LIMBS Portal has been re-designed in such a way that CBIC, CBDT would require to feed only minimum relevant data of the cases of High Courts and Tribunals on the LIMBS portal which would form the basic case data for SLP/Appeal initiation.Updating Case Number Record (CNR) using Case Type, Case Number, Case Year for each High court data record has been provisioned making updating very easy and CBIC/CBDT does not need to search for the same through other IT based systems. With the update of correct CNR Number, LIMBS Portal ensures connectivity with HCs servers for uncertified orders/ judgments, latest case status retrieval thus reducing the delay for SLP initiation for want of certified copies of judgments.The provisions have been made in the LIMBS portal that LIMBS software will automate the updating of High Court records from the High Court database as and when hearing takes place at the respective High Court (using correct CNR no). This will result in minimum human intervention and cut down delay in having information and then updating on the LIMBS portal.The records of High Court data in LIMBS will finally be updated manually (in case of wrong CNR number) or automatically including the disposal information, since the disposal and date of disposal information is vital for seeking advice internally and from DOLA/CAS.Feature has been developed in LIMBS to update records through Compliance Entry function in the situations of win or loss, since Win or Loss cannot be automated for initiating SLP proposals in LIMBS but is a must to be entered using a separate function developed in LIMBS.Provision has been made to sensitize CBIC and CBDT officers through SMS and on login into the LIMBS on the countdown in days for submission of proposal and advices within CBIC and CBDT and finally submission to DOLA/CAS which would cut down delay for initiating SLP/Appeals.A workflow based module for proposing SLP filing has been developed and rolled out for CBIC and CBDT officers to forward/mark them within CBIC and CBDT for their approval.It will cut down delays in seeking internal...

Reducing Delay In Revenue Litigation : Supreme Court Directs Integration Of ITAT, CETSTAT & Other Tribunals With Technology Adopted

Shruti Kakkar

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