What is itat e-dwar?
- (a)An Urdu magazine published from Lucknow
- (b)An e-filing portal of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
- (c)A religious monument
- (d)Name of a UNESCO world heritage site
Correct — B, An e-filing portal of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. The portal named itat e-dwar was launched on 25 June 2021 by the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, at a virtual function attended by tribunal functionaries from all twenty-eight stations along with bar associations, income tax officers and chartered accountants. It lets parties file appeals, miscellaneous applications, documents and paper books electronically instead of physically, and it was presented as raising accessibility, accountability and transparency in the tribunal's day-to-day working. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal itself is an old institution — set up on 25 January 1941, it was the first experiment in tribunalisation in India, and it functions under the Department of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Law and Justice, deliberately kept apart from the Ministry of Finance so that the forum hearing tax appeals is not answerable to the department collecting the tax.
- (a)An Urdu magazine published from Lucknow — Nothing connects the name to a periodical. The option works only on a candidate who reads the Persian-derived sound of the words and reaches for a literary answer.
- (c)A religious monument — The strongest distractor, because 'dwar' means a door or gateway and Indian monuments carry names of that shape. Here the gateway metaphor is doing digital work — it is the door through which an appeal is filed.
- (d)Name of a UNESCO world heritage site — India's World Heritage inscriptions are well documented and no site carries this name. The Indian entry actually in the news in 2021 was Dholavira, which appears in its own right later in this same paper.
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal is the second appellate authority in the direct tax chain and the first independent forum in it. An assessee dissatisfied with an assessment goes first to the Commissioner (Appeals) inside the department, and then to the tribunal, which sits in benches usually made up of one judicial member and one accountant member. Its findings on facts are ordinarily final; a further appeal lies to the High Court only on a substantial question of law.
Government portals and digital initiatives are among the most reliably asked current-affairs categories, and they are answerable by decoding the name if you have not memorised the item. Here 'itat' is the tribunal's own acronym and 'e-dwar' is an electronic doorway, so the option that names both the tribunal and an electronic filing function is the one that fits, and the three wrong options ignore the acronym entirely. It is worth remembering which ministry the tribunal belongs to as well, because that is the natural follow-up question — the Ministry of Law and Justice, not the Ministry of Finance.
- The portal itat e-dwar was launched on 25 June 2021 by the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
- It allows electronic filing of appeals, miscellaneous applications, documents and paper books before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
- The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was set up on 25 January 1941 and was the first tribunal established in India.
- It functions under the Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, kept separate from the Ministry of Finance.
- Its benches ordinarily comprise one judicial member and one accountant member, and a further appeal lies to the High Court on a substantial question of law.
The acronym gives the institution and the second half gives the function; between them the option answers itself.
- Reading the Persian-derived name as belonging to a monument or a magazine and ignoring the acronym.
- Placing the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal under the Ministry of Finance; its independence from the revenue department is the point.
- Confusing this tribunal with the Central Administrative Tribunal or the National Green Tribunal, which have their own parent statutes.
As a 'what is X' item on a newly launched portal or scheme, or as a match between portals and the ministries that run them.
Consider the following statements : 1. Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) was set up during the Prime Ministership of Lal Bahadur Shastri. 2. The Members for CAT are drawn from both judicial and administrative streams. Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
Tribunals as a family. That item checks when the Central Administrative Tribunal was set up and how its members are drawn; the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal is the oldest member of the same family, dating from 1941, and it too mixes judicial with specialist members.
Recently launched ‘Jan Samarth’ portal
- (a) provides single point access for authenticated health information to citizens.
- (b) assists farmers to access links to useful farming-specific information.
- (c) provides access to Pan India e-Government services.
- (d) provides link to Government credit schemes.
Answer(d) provides link to Government credit schemes.
The same question type one paper later — a named government portal, and four plausible descriptions of what it might do. Both are answered by taking the name apart rather than by having memorised a launch date.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal functions under which Ministry of the Government of India?
- (a)Ministry of Finance
- (b)Ministry of Law and Justice
- (c)Ministry of Corporate Affairs
- (d)Ministry of Home Affairs
Answer(b) Ministry of Law and Justice — it sits under the Department of Legal Affairs, deliberately apart from the department that collects the tax.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ordinarily consists of
- (a)three judicial members
- (b)one judicial member and one accountant member
- (c)one serving High Court judge and two officials of the tax department
- (d)a single administrative member
Answer(b) one judicial member and one accountant member — the mix is deliberate, since tax appeals turn on questions of law and of accounting together.