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Vodafone Essar Cellular Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Cochin

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 577Decided 29 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 1045-1052 of 2011
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice S. Ravindra Bhat · Justice Bela M. Trivedi

Background

Vodafone Essar Cellular Ltd. had filed a batch of civil appeals (and several connected appeals involving the same group of companies) against the Income Tax Department concerning assessment years going back years, pending before the Supreme Court since 2011. During the pendency of these appeals, the appellants filed applications (I.A. Nos. 64307, 64291, 64512, 64951, 64954, 64961 and 64963 of 2021) seeking liberty to withdraw the appeals, along with a connected application for correcting the cause title to reflect a change in the applicant's name.

Decision Breakdown

The Court first allowed the uncontested application to amend the cause title to reflect the change in the applicant/appellant's name. It then noted that the applications seeking withdrawal of the appeals were not opposed by counsel for the Revenue (the Income Tax Department). Consequently, the Court allowed the withdrawal applications and disposed of the civil appeals as withdrawn, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A litigant can withdraw a pending appeal at any stage, even years after filing, and courts will readily permit this when the opposing side does not object, ending the litigation without a ruling on the merits.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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