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आदेश/Order
PER N.K. SAINI, VICE PRESIDENT
This is an appeal by the Assessee against the order of the Ld. Pr. CIT, Panchkula dt. 18/03/2021.
Following grounds have been raised in this appeal :
That the Ld. PCIT is not justified in not giving the proper opportunity of hearing, which is against the natural justice and the order of Ld. PCIT be quashed.
2. That the Ld. PCIT is not justified in issuing notice and passing order for u/s 263 of Income Tax Act, 1961. 3. That the Ld. PCIT is not justified in passing the order on issues which were not mentioned in the notice u/s 263. 4. That the Ld. PCIT is not justified in holding the order of Ld. AO as erroneous and prejudicial to the interest of the revenue. 5. That the appellant craves leave for any addition, deletion or amendment in the grounds of appeal on or before the disposal of the same.
3. Vide Ground No. 1 the grievance of the assessee is that the opportunity of being heard was not provided by the Ld. Pr. CIT.
Facts of the case in brief are that the assessment in this case was completed under section 143(3) r.w.s 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act’) on 24/10/2018 at NIL income by accepting the returned income. Thereafter the Ld. Pr. CIT initiated the proceedings under section 263 of the Act and passed the impugned order exparte by observing in para 2 of the impugned order as under:
“ 2. In response thereto, neither the assessee furnished any explanation nor any written communication was received, thus, it can be concluded that the assessee has nothing to say in his defense.” 5. Now the assessee is in appeal.
The Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the Ld. Pr. CIT issued notice dt. 04/03/2021 and asked the assessee to furnish all the documents by 11/03/2021, reference was made to page no. 6 & 7 of the assessee’s compilation which is the copy of the said notice issued by the Ld. Pr. CIT. It was further stated that the assessee was Corona Positive and could not furnish the requisite details on the said date i.e; 11/03/2021, copy of the RTPCR Test Report dt. 10/03/2021 was furnished which is placed at page no. 1 & 2 of the assessee’s compilation. It was accordingly submitted that the assessee was not in a position to furnish the documentary evidences asked by the Ld. Pr. CIT. Therefore, the Ld. Pr. CIT was not justified in passing the impugned order dt. 18/03/2021 exparte.
In his rival submissions the Ld. CIT DR supported the impugned order passed by the Ld. Pr. CIT.
We have considered the submissions of both the parties and perused the material available on the record. In the present case it is not in dispute that the Ld. Pr. CIT passed the impugned order exparte. It is also noticed that the assessee could not furnish the relevant documents before the Ld. Pr. CIT on the date mentioned in the notice issued under section 263 of the Act for the reason that the assessee was Corona Positive as per the report dt. 10/03/2021 while the time allowed vide notice dt. 04/03/2021 by the Ld. Pr. CIT was 11/03/2021. We, therefore, considering the totality of the facts deem it appropriate to set aside this case back to the file of the Ld. Pr. CIT to be adjudicated afresh in accordance with law after providing due and reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee.
In the result, appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
(Order pronounced in the open Court on 20/12/2021)