Per T.V. Rajagopala Rao, President - When these three appeals together with several other appeals of similar type were pending in the Tribunal all over the country, the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax III, Delhi, addressed a letter dated 14-8-1998 bringing to the notice of the President the pendency of several appeals, involving block assessment orders, filed by the assessee in which grounds/additional grounds were raised about the legality of the approval given by the Commissioners of Income-tax approving the block assessment orders. The main contention of the assessees in those cases is that the Commissioner is required by law to give an opportunity of hearing to the assessees before giving approval and it is also contended that the Commissioner is required by law to record his reasoning in writing while approving the order of the Assessing Officer. This issue is involved in almost all the block assessments all over the country numbering hundreds. There is a possibility of difference of opinion amongst different Benches of the Tribunal and, therefore, he requested to constitute a Special Bench to decide the issue, so that uniformity of decision be achieved. He further stated that the decision will have far reaching consequences. He suggested formation of the Special Bench to answer the following questions :

(1)(a)Whether the Commissioner while approving the order of Assessing Officer under section 158BC of the Act is required by law to necessarily give an opportunity of hearing to the assessee ?

(b)Whether the approval of an order by the Commissioner without giving an opportunity of being heard to the assessee, would render the order of Assessing Officer void ab initio or would be only an infirmity curable in law ?

(2)(a)Whether the provisions of section 158BG require the Commissioner to record his reasons in writing for approving the order of Assessing Officer passed under section 158BC of the Act.

(b)Whether the approval of Commissioner without recording his reasons in writing for approving the order would render the order of Assessing Officer ab intio void or would be only an infirmity curable in law ?

The President accordingly constituted the Special Bench for consideration and decision of the above questions. The Special Bench was formulated at Delhi. Wide publicity about the formation of Special Bench and the questions coming up before the Special Bench was given by intimating in the Notice Boards of all the Benches throughout the country and very many interveners also have put in their appearances and advanced their arguments regarding the questions formulated. In I.T.A. (SS) No. 5555/ Del/96, ground No. 8 was specifically taken and it is as follows :

"That the impugned assessment is otherwise bad in law and unsus- tainable as while granting approval to the impugned assessment, the learned CIT-Delhi-III had not granted any opportunity whatsoever to the appellant."

2. In I.T.A. (SS) No. 113/DEL/97 which is an appeal against block assessment in which Shri Jaipal Aggarwal is the appellant, the Docket order dated 5-1-1999 shows the Tribunal to have granted permission to amend ground No. 1 and the amended ground No. 1 reads as under :

"That the impugned block assessment order dated 29-4-1997 as passed by the learned Assessing Officer is illegal and void ab initio inter alia because:—

(a)The Ld. CIT-III, Delhi appears to have given his approval mechanically & without applying his mind independently also without affording an opportunity to the appellant of being heard.

(b)Principles of natural justice had been violated."

The Bench had allowed the amended ground to be incorporated and to advance arguments on that ground during the course of arguments. Shri O.P. Sapra, the learned advocate appeared for Shri Jaipal Aggarwal.

3. In ITA (SS) No. 127/Del/97 which is also an appeal which had arisen from the block assessment in the case of Smt. Vidhu Aggarwal, is represented by Shri O.P. Sapra, learned Advocate. It would appear that Smt.