Section 367 — Appeal to Supreme Court. Successor to s.261 of the 1961 Act.
Section 367 is in Chapter XVIII — Appeals Revisions and Alternate Dispute Resolutions, which runs from section 356 to section 389.
The section creates the appeal to the Supreme Court. An appeal lies to the Supreme Court from any judgment of the High Court delivered on an appeal made to the High Court in respect of an order passed under section 363, in any case which the High Court certifies to be fit for appeal to the Supreme Court.
It gives the Act its own route to the Supreme Court and puts the gate in the hands of the court that decided the case. The certificate requirement means the appeal is not available as of right on every High Court judgment, but only where that court itself considers the case fit to go further.
Three things must line up before this section gives an appeal. The order appealed from must be a judgment of the High Court, that judgment must have been delivered on an appeal made to the High Court, and that appeal must have been in respect of an order passed under section 363. A High Court judgment given in some other proceeding does not qualify. On top of that sits the certificate: the High Court must certify the case to be fit for appeal to the Supreme Court, and the section makes that certification the condition on which the appeal lies rather than a formality that follows the filing.
An assessee loses before the Appellate Tribunal, whose order is passed under section 363, and appeals to the High Court. The High Court decides against him. He cannot go to the Supreme Court under this section merely because the amount is large or the point is important — the appeal lies only if the High Court certifies the case to be fit for appeal to the Supreme Court. Going to the Supreme Court from the Tribunal's own order, without a High Court judgment in between, is outside the section altogether.
After the High Court has decided your appeal: this is the section under which the certificate of fitness is sought from that court, and the certificate is what an appeal to the Supreme Court under the Act rests on.
An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment of the High Court delivered on an appeal made to High Court in respect of an order passed under section 363 in any case which the High Court certifies to be fit for appeal to the Supreme Court.
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.