T.S.RAGHAV,SUNDER NAGAR vs. ITO, SUNDER NAGAR

The Registry has pointed out that the appeal is barred by limitation by 80 days. The Assessee moved an application for condonation of delay dt. 01/07/2020 stating therein as under:

That the said appeal has been filed on a later date because of the COVID-19 and Lock down declared and instructed there by as per the regulations of the central and state Govts both as well as the said order was being appealed against well in time within the ambit of limitation period but all of a sudden the

That also along with the said reason of delay due to the outbreak of Pandemic was far beyond control of the Appellant/Applicant and'hence it is not liable to be termed as the delay caused on behalf of the Applicant/ appellant.

That the Appellant was instructed to deposit the Tax amount of Order under appeal Rs 165320/- by the ITO Sunder Nagar regarding the Assessment order dated of ITO Sunder Nagar i.e. order under appeal whereas the appellant was ordered and recovered the said amount of Additional Tax Amount of Rs 1,65,320/- from Appellant . Had the Appellant not been to deposit the said tax amount then in that event the Authority below was bent upon ordering the seizure of CC Limit account of the appellant/ Assesee.

That the said appeal was filed manually before the CIT Palampur by the Assesee/ appellant but the same was returned back to Appellant /Assesee by instructing him to file the same online. The Appellant was out of station and had been busy in the remote area of Kinnour Distt. And in the mean time delay was caused for filing the Appeal online later on The appeal was not allowed by CIT Palampur and no merits of the case were taken as granted . The case was decided against the appellant. Then while the Appellant approached to the LD ITAT then CoviD-19 the pandemic outbreak caused huge delay in filing the said appeal when there was strict lockdown imposed upon the all the people to move through the open areas to avoid the said pandemic. Though the Apex Court has exempted the Limitation period vide its order regarding the same.

During the course of hearing the Ld. Counsel for the Assessee submitted that the delay if any occurred was due to pandemic of COVID-19, therefore the same may be condoned.

The Ld. CIT DR could not controvert the aforesaid contention of the Ld. Counsel for the Assessee.

After considering the submissions of both the parties, it appears that the delay in filing the appeal occurred due to COVID-19 pandemic which was beyond the control of the assessee, I therefore by keeping in view the aforesaid application furnished by the assessee condone the delay and the appeal is admitted.

Following grounds have been raised in this appeal:

That the authority below has decided the case exercising the power vested in it under section 143(3) of the income tax Act, 1961 and depicted a long Para regarding the shortcomings in cash account for which there were no instructions to exercise the powers at all and was instructed merely to go through the concept of Gross Receipts and mismatch online thereof and regarding the TDS mismatch only, but the Ld. Authority below when found no any discrepancy throughout in the data entries regarding the receipts / Sales and TDS mismatch then it moved its direction towards the cash receipts and payments therein and indicated the addition into income in the exaggerated field of operation of limited scrutiny and caused a huge blunder while arriving at the amount of order by enhancing the addition into original returned income of assessee. That the case was fixed under Limited scrutiny and was to be investigated some issues technical and the basis of assessment order made by the A.A Cum ITO Sunder Nagar has erred due to clear violation of law of Jurisdiction and in the utter absence of the same the issues settled thereby as per the orders of CASS. The ITO concerned has as such disobeyed the indications and instructions and has deployed the powers out of discretion which is against Natural Justice and provisions of the Law. Now therefore the appellant dissatisfied with the order of the I.T.O. Sunder Nagar Distt. Mandi and preferred this appeal. 2. The Appellate Authority below has considered the case for delay in filing the said Appeal and decided the case without any discussion and without paying any heeds towards the merits of the case. The said appeal before the Respondent No. 2 was filed manually well in time and in the mean time and in the meantime the Assessee went to Kinnour Distt at work site afterwards the appeal was returned back to Assesee and thereby he was ordered to file it online duly signed digitally and the process of online filing consumed time maximum when the Assessee came back and got the same work update after applying for the Digital Signs hence there was obviously a delay but

Being aggrieved the assessee carried the matter to the Ld. CIT(A) who dismissed the appeal in limine and did not condone the delay in filing the appeal.

Now the assessee is in appeal.

The Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the Ld. CIT(A) did not provide any opportunity of being heard relating to the delay in filing the appeal which was beyond the control of the assessee, as the assessee was residing in remote area of Kinnour District, Himachal Pradesh. It was stated that the Ld. CIT(A) did not provided the proper opportunity of being heard before dismissing the appeal of the assessee in limine.

In his rival submissions the Ld. DR strongly supported the impugned order passed by the Ld. CIT(A).

I have considered the submissions of both the parties and perused the material available on the record. In the present case, it is an admitted fact that the Ld. CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee in limine. It is also noticed that the Ld. CIT(A) did not ask the assessee to explain the delay in filing the appeal before him, if any. It is well settled that nobody should be condemned, unheard as per the maxim, “audi alteram partem”.

I, therefore, by keeping in view the principles of natural justice, deem it appropriate to set aside this case back to the file of the Ld. CIT(A) to be adjudicated afresh in accordance with law after providing due and reasonable opportunity of

In the result, appeal of the Assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.