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Background
a)
CBDT vide its notification 2/2016
dated 3-Feb-2016 has prescribed
Procedure, Formats and Standards for ensuring secured transmission of
electronic communication.
c)
An attempt is being made to trace the difference in manual or physical
submissions and electronic submissions.
d) The two important differences
are
e) Documents will be in
electronic format as compared to printed format.
f) No or less opportunity for
personal hearing.
Documents in electronic format -:
g) Firstly, to be very honest,
physical printing and signing the submission is a critical process that acts as
a strong control to verify the various characteristics of the submission.
h) We are accustomed to use email
in much casual a manner as compared to submission at the time of assessment.
i) Now we will be using email as
manner of communication which will act as a submission before a quasi-judicial
authority.
j) Each document will have to be
converted into pdf format, be it from pdf printer or saving the scan copy of a
printed document into a pdf format.
k) The task is to inculcate the
same degree of checks and balances while making an electronic submission.
l) The time gap from drafting of
the submission to actually handing over to the assessing officer itself acts an
opportunity for checks and balances.
Regarding personal hearing
m) A personal hearing has
following characteristics which will not be there in case of scrutiny
assessment on email.
- Help the authority to identify the relevant portion in the hip of documents
- Clear up his doubts
- to watch the demeanor i.e. the body language of the people. Following are broad aspects thereof
Physical movement
Facial expression – Facial expression is integral when expressing emotions
through the body. Combinations of eyes, eyebrow, lips, nose, and cheek
movements help form different moods of an individual
Body postures Sitting or standing postures, head nodding, foot kicking
Gestures – Gestures are movements
made with body parts (e.g. hands, arms, fingers, head, legs) and they may be
voluntary or involuntary. Arm gestures can be interpreted in several ways.
Handshakes – Handshakes are regular greeting rituals and are commonly
done on meeting, greeting, offering congratulations or after the completion of
an agreement. They usually indicate the level of confidence and emotion level
in people.
Other subcategories
Oculesics – It is the study of eye movement, eye behavior, gaze,
and eye-related nonverbal communication.
Haptics – is the
study of touching and how it is used in communication.[13] As such, handshakes,
holding hands,back slapping, high fives, brushing up against someone or pats
all have meaning.
Proxemics – the study of measurable distances between people as they
interact with one another.
Tone of voice – Tone of voice is a combination of spoken language and
body language. The manner in which something is said can affect how it should
be interpreted. Shouting, smiling, irony and so on may add a layer of meaning
which is neither pure body language nor speech.
n) For further details, one may
refer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language
o) In this aspect, a relevant
observation of supreme court is worth re-producing.
In Union of India Vs. Shiv Raj –
[(2014) 6 SCC 564], a three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court reiterated the
principle laid down in Gullapalli Nageswara Rao’s case. This is evident from
paragraphs 17 to 20 of the judgement, which are reproduced below : This Court
in Gupllapalli Nageswara Rao, held : (AIR p. 327, para 31)
“31.
…Personal hearing enables the authority concerned to watch the demeanor of the witnesses and clear up his doubts during the course of the arguments, and the party
appearing to persuade the authority by reasoned argument to accept his point of
view. If one person hears and another decides, then personal hearing becomes
and empty formality. We therefore, hold that the said procedure followed in
this case also offends another basic principle of judicial procedure.”
[Underline mine]
Actual Experience-:
p) At the outset, let me accept
that, I do not have any experience of such email scrutiny.
q) But I have done interaction
with people through skype call where personal hearing is / was not possible.
r) All the documents were
exchanged / shared through email or cloud facility.
s) If I compare my experience
with the future of scrutiny assessment or even appellate hearing, it may by
summarized as follows.
t) In the place of 6-8 personal
hearings, 2 personal hearings and 2 skype / online hearings will suffice.
u) Typically, first personal
hearing will be required in very initial stages where the authorised
representative will explain the nature and characteristics of the assessee.
v) One personal hearing will be
required before closing the arguments.
w) The skype / online hearing
will happen in between the personal hearings.
Conclusion -:
x) The electronic communication
system will certainly bring down the requirement for number of personal
hearings but can not eliminate it.
( Author CA. Yogesh S. Limaye can
be reached at yogesh@salcoca.com)
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