Appellate Tribunal

Introduction:
The federal Government is the appointing authority of the appellate tribunal.It is the second court of appeals.The taxpayer or the commissioner if not satisfied with the decision of commissioner (appeals) can appeal to the appellate tribunal.

Members:
The appellate tribunal consists of two types of members. a) Judicial members. b) Accountant members. Judicial members: The federal Government may appoint a person as judicial member of the appellate tribunal if: 1) He has an exercised the power of a district judge and is qualified to be a judge of a high court. 2) He is or has been an advocate of high court and is qualified to be a judge of high court. Accountant members: 1) The federal Government shall appoint the accountant members of the tribunal also. The accountant member shall be an officer of the income tax group equivalent in rank to that of a regional commissioner. 2) Commisssioner of income tax and commissioner of income tax(appeal) having at least 5years experience as

commissioner is also eligible for appointment as accountant member. Administration: A full time registrar is responsible to recieve the appeals and look after the working of the offices of the tribunal.He is subordinate to chairperson of the appelate tribunaland works under his guidance. He entertains the appeal provisionally, fixes the dates for hearing and look after the administrative affairs of the appelate tribunal.His office is situated in the headquarters of appelate tribunal in Islamabad.There are assistant registrars posted in karachi and peshawar benches. Functioning of the appelate tribunal: The chairperson of the appelate tribunal may constitute benches to perform the functions of tribunals.A bench is normally consists of 2 members. A large bench may also be constituted by the chairperson. A bench usually consist of equal number of judicial and accountant members but in certain cases the number of one type of members may exceed the other type by one. Organization of appellate tribunal can be explained with the help of the following chart: Appellate Tribunal Chairperson Members Judicial or Accountant registrar Assistant Registrar

Explanation:

A bench might consist of two judicial members and one accountant member or two judicial members and three accountant members. If the members of a bench differ in opinion on any point, the majority decision is accepted but if the members are equally divided the point in dispute is referred to the chairperson of the tribunal. In such cases the chairperson appoints one or more of the other member s of the tribunal to hear the disputeed point. Final Fact Finding Authority: The decision of the appellate tribunal on a point of fact is final.Due to this reason it is known as final fact finding authority.However if the decision of the appellate tribunal involves a point of law, the case can be referred to the high court.