Commissioner of Income Tax vs Subhash Vohra, Kuljit Vohra, Smt. Sumitra Devi and Pramod Kumar Kaushik

G.S. Singhvi, J.—These appeals are directed against the orders passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Amritsar, and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi Bench "A", Delhi, whereby the orders passed by the competent authorities for acquisition of the properties belonging to the respondents have been set aside. In I. T. A. No. 21 of 1987, the Tribunal has remanded the case to the competent authority for fresh decision while setting aside the order of acquisition.

There is no controversy between the parties that the apparent value of the properties purchased by the respondents in each of these appeals is less than Rs. 5 lakhs.

Circular No. 455 (see Emerald Paints and Colour Products (P.) Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, ) dated May 16, 1986, issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes directing the competent authorities to drop the proceedings in cases where the apparent consideration of the property was less than Rs. 5 lakhs came up for interpretation before this court in Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Export India Corporation (P.) Ltd., After taking into consideration the object with which the circular was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, this court held that the same would be applicable to the proceedings pending at the appellate stage as well. The same view has been reiterated by this court in Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Gobind Ram, and in I. T. A. No. 7 of 1980-- Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Gursher Singh and Another, decided on November 18, 1996, along with four other appeals.

In our opinion, there is no reason to differ from the view expressed in the abovereferred three decisions.

In view of the above, the appeals filed by the Commissioner of Income Tax deserve to be dismissed. Ordered accordingly.