Prime Minister to inaugurate office-cum-residential complex of ITAT at Cuttack

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a state-of-the-art office-cum-residential complex of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Cuttack on Wednesday via video conferencing.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, chief justice and judges of Orissa High Court, along with other dignitaries would also be present during the event at 4:30 pm, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, also known as ITAT, is an important statutory body in the field of direct taxes and its orders are accepted as final, on findings of fact.

It is presently headed by Justice (Retd) P P Bhatt, formerly judge of the high courts of Jharkhand and Gujarat.

ITAT was the first tribunal to be created on January 25, 1941 and is also known as ‘Mother Tribunal’.

Starting with three benches in the year 1941, at Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta it has now grown to 63 benches and two circuit benches spread across thirty cities of India.

The Cuttack Bench of the ITAT was created and started functioning from May 23, 1970.

The jurisdiction of the Cuttack Bench extends to the whole of Odisha. It was functioning in a rented premise for more than 50 years.

The newly-built office-cum-residential complex of ITAT, Cuttack is spread over an area of 1.60 acres of land allotted by the state government of Odisha free of cost in the year 2015, the PMO said.

The total built-up area of the office complex is 1938 square meters over three floors including inter alia, the spacious court room, ultra-modern record room, well-equipped chambers for the members of the bench, library room, well-equipped modern conference hall, with sufficient space for the litigants, bar room for lawyers, chartered accountants, it said.