Income tax department is set to start an online 'judicial reference system'

The income tax department is set to start an online 'judicial reference system' in order to streamline thousands of departmental cases being fought in various courts and I-T tribunals across the country.

The facility, to be used by IT department officials initially, will put in place all the cases, petitions and Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) in an online server which will be developed by private vendors, a senior I-T official said today.

Tax payers can also avail the facility to check the orders and judgements given by the various I-T tribunals like the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and courts after the successful implementation of the system.

"The tax department handles volumes of cases with a long time span at present being heard at various courts in the country. With this maiden service all the assessing officers and region commissioners will be able to know the exact status of the cases and take references from older cases," the official said.

However, the status of cases, replies filed by the department and other specific information can be accessed by the department officials only, the official said.