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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “A” BENCH, MUMBAI
Before: SHRI B.R. BASKARAN, AM & SHRI N. K. CHOUDHRY, JM
Anthayya Education Asst. Commissioner of Foundation Trust, 104, Income Tax (Exemption)- Sambhav Apt, Mulund West, Vs. 1(1), Room No. 508, Piramal Chambers, 5th Floor, Lalbaug, S.O, Mumbai-400080. Mumbai-400012. PAN No. AABTA2813L Appellant) : Respondent) Appellant/Assessee by : Shri Devendra Jain, Ld. Adv. Respondent/Department by : Shri Ajay Chandran, Ld. CIT-DR Date of Hearing : 21.09.2023 Date of Pronouncement : 22.09.2023 O R D E R Per N. K. Choudhry, JM:
The Assessee/Appellant herein has preferred this appeal against the order dated 22.03.2023 impugned herein passed by Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-1, Mumbai/ National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi {in short ‘Ld. Commissioner’} under section 250 of the Income Tax Act 1961 (in short ‘the Act’).
At the outset, we observe that there is a delay of 60 days in filing the instant appeal, on which the Assessee has claimed that impugned order dated 22.03.2023 under section 250 of the Act was passed by the Anthayya Education Foundation Trust National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi and was uploaded on the e-filing portal and sent to the Assessee through email, however, the email was missed by the Assessee and no physical copy of the order was received, but somehow in the mid month of May 2023 on checking the status of appeal proceedings at e-filing portal, the Assessee become aware that the appeal proceedings were concluded and the aforesaid impugned order has already been passed and therefore, on this reason alone the Assessee could not file its appeal within the statutory limits of period of 60 days. Considering the reason given by the Assessee as genuine and as there is no contrary claim/documents against the claim of the Assessee, hence, we are condoning the delay of 36 days in filing the instant appeal.
Coming to the merits of the case, we observe that the Ld. Commissioner dismissed the appeal of the Assessee in limine on the point of limitation by concluding “that the Assessee has filed the appeal beyond the statutory time limit on 30 days and has merely stated that the concerned persons busy and traveling, therefore, it could not file appeal in time. It is pertinent to mention that the Assessee is a Trust and compliance could not have been done by the other Trustees and by authorized members. The reason of the Assessee is not found to be appropriate since the appeal filing is time and in the absence of any justified reason/explanation, the same is not maintainable ab- initio”.
The Assessee claimed that in Form-35 at paragraph no. 14 & 15, the Assessee has specifically mentioned that there was delay in filing the appeal and the Assessee has also given detailed reasons in para-15 of Form-35. There appears to be 23 days delay in filing of appeal before the Ld. Commissioner, which the Assessee has tried to justify by giving domestic reasons such as the previous representative appointed for filing the appeal retracted at the last moment and the management Trustees were occupied in admission, etc.
Anthayya Education Foundation Trust Considering the delay minuscule and reasons as bonafide, the Ld. Commissioner would have condoned the delay. Hence, considering the peculiar facts and circumstances and for the just decision of the case and for the ends of justice, we are inclined to condone the delay occurred before the Ld. Commissioner and to remand the instant case to the file of the Ld. Commissioner for decision on merit, suffice to say by giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the Assessee.
In the result, appeal filed by the Assessee stand allowed for statistical purposes.