Tribunal

Tribunal (1) There shall be a Tribunal consisting of such members including a President as the State Government may, from time to time, deem it necessary to appoint from amongst
(a) the persons who are qualified to be judges of the High Court, and (b) the persons belonging to the Uttar Pradesh Trade Tax Service who hold or have held a post not below the rank of [Joint Commissioner] : PROVIDED that
(i) where the Tribunal consists of one or more persons who is or are member or members of the UP Higher Judicial Service, then he or the senior most amongst them shall be appointed as President, (ii) no person shall be appointed from amongst advocates unless he has paid income-tax on income from such profession (exclusive of all other incomes) in each of the five consecutive years preceding such appointment.
(1A) The State Government may prescribe such other qualifications or conditions for the appointment of the President and other members of the Tribunal as it may deem fit.
(1B) The provisions of rule 56 of the UP Fundamental Rules shall continue to apply to every member of the Tribunal including the President whether appointed before or after the commencement of the UP Sales Tax (Second Amendment and Validation) Act, 1983, as they apply to any other government servant:
PROVIDED that a member of the Tribunal including the President appointed before the commencement of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax (Second Amendment and Validation) Act, 1983, may continue as such till he attains the age of sixty years.
(2) Any person aggrieved by an order passed under section 9 (other than an order referred toin sub-section (4A) of that section), section 10B, sub-section (2B) or sub-section (3) of section 4A, a decision under section 35, a direction under the proviso to sub-section (6) of section 13A or an order granting or refusing to grant an eligibility certificate within the meaning of clause (d) of sub-section (2) of section 4A may, within ninety days from the date of service of the copy of such order, decision or direction on him, prefer an appeal to the Tribunal:
PROVIDED that where the disputed amount of tax, fee or penalty does not exceed two thousand rupees and no question of law is involved, the appellant may, at his option, request the Tribunal in writing for summary disposal of his appeal, whereupon the Tribunal may decide the appeal accordingly.
Explanation: For the purposes of this sub-section, the expression any person in relation to any order passed by an authority other than the Commissioner includes the Commissioner and in relation to any order passed by the Commissioner includes the State Government;
(2A) The manner and procedure of summary disposal of appeal shall be such as may be prescribed.
(3) Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 shall apply to appeals or other applications under this section.
(4) The Tribunal may at any stage, after giving the appellant a reasonable opportunity of being heard, dismiss the appeal.
(5) The Tribunal may, if it has not already dismissed the appeal under sub-section (4), after calling for and examining the relevant records, and after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard or, as the case may be, after following the procedure prescribed under sub-section (2A)
(a) confirm, cancel or vary such order, or (b) set aside the order and direct the assessing or appellate or revising authority or the Commissioner or the officer granting the eligibility certificate, as the case may be, to pass a fresh order after such further enquiry, if any, as may be specified, or (c) order such amount of tax, fee or penalty or other money as may have been realised in excess of the due amount to be refunded according to the provisions of this Act.
Explanation: The power to vary an order referred to in clause (a) includes the power to vary the order by reducing or enhancing the amount of assessment or penalty.
(6) Where an appeal under this section has been filed, the Tribunal may, on the application of the appellant moved along with the memorandum of such appeal after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard, stay the operation of the order appealed against or the recovery of the disputed amount of any tax, fee or penalty payable, or refund of the amount due, or proceeding for reassessment under the order appealed against till the disposal of the appeal:
PROVIDED that
(i) no application for stay of recovery of any disputed amount of tax, fee or penalty shall be entertained unless the applicant has furnished satisfactory proof of the payment of not less than one third of such disputed amount in addition to the amount required to be deposited under sub-section (1B) of section 9;
(ii) the Tribunal may, for special and adequate reasons to be recorded in writing, waive or relax the requirement of clause (i) regarding payment of the one-third of such disputed amount.
Ic9560(iii) the Tribunal shall have no power to stay the operation of an order of the assessing authority or appellate authority made under sub-section (1-B) or sub-section (1-C) of section 8-A.]
(7) [Omitted]
(8) Where the Tribunal passes an order under this section for the stay of recovery of any tax, fee or penalty or for the stay of the operation of any order appealed against and such order of the Tribunal results in the stay of recovery of any tax, fee or penalty, such stay order of the Tribunal shall not remain in force for more than thirty days unless the appellant furnished adequate security to the satisfaction of the assessing authority concerned for the payment of the outstanding amount.
(9) The members of the Tribunal shall sit in such benches of one, two or more members, as may be constituted from time to time, and do such work of the Tribunal as may, subject to sub-section (10) and the rules, be allotted to them, by order, or in accordance with the directions of the President of the Tribunal.
(10) (a) An appeal against the order of appellate authority under section 9 shall be heard and disposed of
(i) by a bench of two members, where such order is passed by an Additional Commissioner (Appeals) or the amount of tax, fee or penalty in dispute exceeds [two lakh rupees] ; (ii) by a single member bench, in any other case.
(ii) by a single member bench, in any other case or in a case where an appeal, not being an appeal against the order of an Additional Commissioner (Appeals), preferred before July 9, 1997 was [pending on May 1, 2003 and the amount of tax, fee or penalty in dispute does not exceed rupees two lakh] . (b) An appeal against an order passed under section 10B or against a direction given under the proviso to sub-section (6) of section 13A shall be heard and disposed of by a bench of two members.
(c) An appeal against an order under sub-section (2B) or sub-section (3) of section 4A or a decision given under section 35, or an order granting or refusing to grant an eligibility certificate within the meaning of clause (d) of sub-section (2) of section 4A shall be filed before the President and shall be heard and disposed of by a bench of three members.
(d) The President may, if he so thinks fit
(i) direct an appeal to be heard and decided by a larger bench;
(ii) transfer an appeal from one bench to another bench.
(e) In a case before a bench consisting of two or more members any order other than an order finally disposing of the case may be passed by any one of the members constituting the bench.
(10A) All appeals arising out of the same cause of action in respect of an assessment year shall be heard and decided together:
PROVIDED that where any one or more of such appeals have been heard and decided earlier, if the bench hearing the remaining appeals considers that such decision may be a legal impediment in giving relief in such remaining appeals, it may, if the earlier decision was given
(a) by a smaller bench or a bench of equal strength, recall such earlier decision and proceed to decide all the appeals together;
(b) by a larger bench, refer such remaining appeals to such larger bench having jurisdiction and thereafter such larger bench may recall such earlier decision and proceed to decide all the appeals together.
(11) The place of sitting and procedure of, and the manner of presenting appeals and other documents to the Tribunal shall, subject to the rules, be such as the Tribunal may deem fit to adopt.
(12) The decision of case heard by a bench, shall be in accordance with the opinion of the majority. Where the members are equally divided the President of the Tribunal may
(a) if he was not a member of such bench, give his own opinion or refer the case for the opinion of another member, whereupon the case shall be decided in accordance with such opinions; or form a larger bench.