Tax tribunal falters minus members

Patna, Feb. 8: The Commercial Taxes Tribunal, Patna has become non-functional with its third member (from the commercial taxes department), Jawahar Choudhary, retiring recently.

The functioning of the three-member tribunal remained affected for four months with the posts of its chairman and member (accounts) lying vacant. With Choudhary retiring as its third member on January 1, the tribunal is now left with no representative.

The Telegraph had in its November 28, 2011, edition published a story highlighting the problems faced by lawyers and litigants because the vacant posts of the chairman and the member (accounts) were not filled up.

Those who suffered the most because of the "non-functioning" tribunal are the traders, who move the panel challenging orders passed by the commissioner of the commercial taxes department and all appellate joint commissioners in the divisional headquarters. The tribunal, which started functioning in 1969 on the Old Secretariat premises, has not been carrying out any operation since October 3, 2011, following the transfer of the earlier chairman, N.N. Ojha, as the district and sessions judge of Samastipur.

The tax tribunal comprises three members ' the chairman who hails from the judicial service, other member (accounts) who happens to be the officer in the rank of the deputy accountant general in the Comptroller and Auditor General of India office and the third is a departmental member (i.e. member of the commercial taxes department).

"Non-functioning of the tribunal is affecting traders. We have requested the state government to fill up the posts of the chairman and member (accounts) as soon as possible. But that did not happen. Now the third member has also retired," Commercial Taxes Bar Association general secretary Ravindra Prasad told The Telegraph.

"As the government refused to pay heed to our demand, the association moved the high court. It urged the court to direct the government to constitute the tribunal. On Thursday last, the court made an oral observation asking the government to either constitute the tribunal or file its reply within 10 days," he added.

The court's direction came during a hearing of a PIL filed by the Commercial Taxes Bar Association seeking early constitution of the tribunal.

During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the high court submitted that it has already sent the name of Rakesh Ratiar, who is at present posted as the Darbhanga district and sessions judge, to the government for his appointment as member (judicial), who would be the chairman of the tribunal. Sources said the government has issued a notification naming joint commissioner Santosh Kumar Sinha as the departmental member. He has not joined the tribunal yet.