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Tribunal drops critical comments about Cyrus Mistry in Tata trusts case
The corrigendum issued by the tribunal on Wednesday clarifies that the order made certain 'inadvertent references to Mistry because of a few typo errors'.The tribunal had observed that Mistry had provided material to the tax department 'within eight weeks' of his departure from the group in 2016
The Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has retracted certain remarks it had made in an order earlier this week that suggested former Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry had provided material to the tax department against the Tata trusts in a tax case.
The corrigendum issued by president of the tribunal P P Bhatt and vice-president Pramod Kumar on Wednesday clarifies that the order made certain "inadvertent references to Mistry because of a few typo errors," news agency PTI said quoting from the corrigendum.
It also noted that one fact, which was inadvertently missed out in the tribunal’s order last Monday, was that the information furnished by Mistry was in response to a notice from the tax department. The tribunal had in that order observed that Mistry had provided material to the tax department “within eight weeks” of his departure from the group in 2016.
ITAT last Monday quashed the income tax department’s orders seeking to revise its earlier assessments for the year ended 31 March 2014 granting tax exemption to three Tata trusts that collectively own two-thirds of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the group.
A statement from the office of Mistry said on Thursday that the tribunal issued the corrigendum “on its own to correct the wild personal allegations made against Mistry that formed part of its 28 December order, in proceedings where Mistry was not even a party.”
The statement also said quoting from the corrigendum that “inadvertent errors” had crept into the order involving Tata Trusts.
“The reversal of these comments acknowledges that information sent by Mistry to the Deputy Commission of Income-tax had been in response to a specific summons, conduct that is expected of any law abiding person. This acknowledgement by the ITAT corroborates the submissions in this regard put forward by the SP (Shapoorji Pallonji) Group before the Supreme Court, and is one step towards the vindication of truth and justice,” said the statement.
