Digital Backend System for Tax Litigation Management

There is proverb: "If you pay peanuts, you will get only monkeys!". My comment is limited to the government counsels appearing in the High Courts. Many advocates opt to become government counsels merely because it provides steady work. There is not much income, nor support such as a library, or stenographic help etc. Government Counsels too need some training in indirect tax matters. The Revenue cannot assume that all the advocates know all the branches of law. In my experience, I have seen a government counsel reading a provision of law from a sheet of paper on which he has written down the provision. He could not even photocopy the text of the provision. Quite often, while the argument is in progress, they borrow the manuals from the assessee's counsels to look up the provision. The enthusiasm shown by the Revenue during the investigation and adjudication abates as the case progresses to the next stage. The litigation becomes an orphan. Technology can help upto a point. It cannot be a substitute for the responsible attitude of the concerned officers. So,this will certainly not be the last instance of the Courts making harsh observations about the Revenue's handling of its litigation.

Gururaj B N 21/07/2022