Withdrawal of tax appeals granted with liberty to challenge tribunal orders before the jurisdictional High Court.

The Department (Appellant) filed a batch of eight tax appeals (TAXC Nos. 145, 148, 141, 150, 149, 143, 144, and 147 of 2025) before the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur to challenge a common order dated 26.12.2024 passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Nagpur.

During the proceedings, the Appellant sought to withdraw the appeals to file them before the High Court having appropriate territorial jurisdiction over the ITAT Nagpur bench.

Whether the Appellant can be granted permission to withdraw the appeals with liberty to approach the jurisdictional High Court.

The Court applied the principle of territorial jurisdiction under the Income Tax Act, 1961, and the procedural right of a litigant to withdraw a pursuit for the purpose of approaching the forum having competent jurisdiction.

The Court considered the Appellant’s request to withdraw the appeals filed in Chhattisgarh.

The Appellant acknowledged that the impugned order was passed by the ITAT, Nagpur, and therefore sought liberty to approach the "jurisdictional High Court" (the High Court of Bombay).

Following the request by the learned counsel for the Appellant and noted by the counsel for the Respondents, the Court exercised its discretionary power to grant the withdrawal without adjudicating on the merits of the underlying tax dispute.

The appeals were dismissed as withdrawn with liberty reserved for the Appellant to approach the appropriate jurisdictional High Court to challenge the ITAT Nagpur order dated 26.12.2024.