ITAT Legal Aid Scheme 2025

With a view to mitigate hardship of taxpayers who do not have adequate resources to bear high cost of direct tax litigation in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and thus make access to justice more equitable, it is proposed to implement a Scheme of Legal Aid to be sponsored and regulated by the ITAT Bar Association, Delhi.

Salient Features of the Scheme:

• The Scheme shall be known as the ‘ITAT Legal Aid Scheme 2025’. It shall come into effect from the date of its approval by the Executive Committee (EC) of the ITAT Bar Association, Delhi.

2. The following persons and class of taxpayers shall be entitled to avail the benefit of this Scheme:

• Individuals or other persons/entities having no taxable income at all;
• Individuals or other small taxpayers having gross income below Rs 10 lakh in the past 3 assessment years or having losses for the past 3 assessment years;
• Taxpayers belonging to weaker sections, such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women, senior and super senior citizens, persons with disability, minors, etc., subject to overall income limit of Rs 10 lakh;
• Charitable or non-profit/mutual organizations facing financial difficulties;
• Business organizations under liquidation, winding up or CRIP proceedings, or facing financial difficulties having losses for past 5 assessment years;
• Any other class or category of taxpayers considered appropriate by the ITAT Bar Association, Delhi;
• Any specific case recommended by the EC Members of the ITAT Bar Association or Members of Hon’ble ITAT.

3. The scheme shall be implemented by a Legal Aid Committee (LAC) constituted for the purpose by the EC of the ITAT Bar Association, Delhi. The Committee shall consist of 5 Members, nominated by the EC. One of the Members will be nominated by EC as its Chairman. Term of the Committee shall be 1 year, and its Members can be re-nominated maximum for 2 terms. The Committee shall manage and implement the Scheme.

4. A Legal Aid Panel (LAP) of interested and eligible members of the Bar shall be drawn up to assist the private litigants under the Scheme. Cases shall be assigned to LAP members by the LAC. Equitable and fair distribution of cases shall be ensured by the LAC. Senior members of the Bar may volunteer to accept legal aid cases, but participation by proxy or through juniors shall be discouraged.

5. Proforma of application for legal aid by tax litigants is annexed as Form-A. Proforma of application for enrolment of members on LAP is annexed as Form-B. A permanent register of LAP members and Legal Aid cases shall be maintained by LAC. Performance of LAP members shall be periodically reviewed by the LAP.

6. The Scheme shall be funded by a nominal fee to be charged from the tax litigant (to meet filing expenses) and contributions to be made by the Bar Association, both as Corpus and at periodical intervals, to be decided by the EC from time to time.

7. The implementation of the Scheme shall be reviewed periodically by the EC, for which purpose the LAC shall submit a Biannual Report every 15th October and 15th April. The LAC shall also submit an annual report, by the 15th May of every year, to EC of the ITAT Bar Association, Delhi.