India, March 6 -- 'The Ministry of Finance has over the years shown its lack of love for the Tribunal'.

With the 2021 Finance Bill, the future of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (Tribunal) is now on a virtual stake. Traditionally, the preparation of the Finance Bill is the preserve of the Department of Revenues, Ministry of Finance, with inputs for drafting obtained from the designated ministries. The several proposals in any Finance Bill are unmistakably to be attributed to the Finance Ministry. So too the changes proposed for the Tribunal in the Bill.

No one can be a judge in his own cause, so goes the old Latin maxim. That is the reality with the Tribunal. The Tribunal which settles facts finally in income tax disputes between the ...