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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “A” BENCH : BANGALORE
Before: SHRI GEORGE GEORGE K & SHRI LAXMI PRASAD SAHU
Per George George K, Vice President:
This appeal at the instance of the assessee is directed against CIT(A)’s order dated 06.02.2023, passed under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter called ‘the Act’). The relevant Assessment Year is 2017-18.
There is a delay of 84 days in filing this appeal. Assessee has filed a petition for condonation of delay, along with an affidavit of the Director of the assessee company stating therein the reasons for the belated filing of the appeal. The reasons stated for the belated filing of the appeal in the affidavit of Director of the assessee company are as follows:
“2. …….The CIT(A) NFAC issued notices on various dates to make submissions. The Appellant was not aware of the Notices as all the notices were sent to CFO Mr.Suresh Kumar.S in his email id Sureshkumar.s@hipe.in, who left the organization in 2021. No communication was sent to any other email.
3. The Appellant was not aware about the notices issued by the Learned CIT(A) therefore, the Appellant could not respond to the notices. The Learned CIT(A) passed an order on 06.02.2023 dismissing the Appeal filed by the Appellant. It is submitted that the order passed by the CIT(A) was also sent in the same Email ID and the Appellant was not aware of the appellate order.
It is submitted that the Appellant became aware of the appellate order in May 2023 while filing reply to 147 Notice, which was sent on a different email Id. The Appellant accordingly took steps to file appeal before the Honourable Tribunal Income Tax Appellant Tribunal (herein after referred as ‘ITAT’ for brevity), Bangalore.
In the normal course, the Petitioner should have filed the appeal before the Income Tax Appellant Tribunal on or before 60 days from the date of receipt of the order passed under section 250, which expired on 07.04.2023. There is delay of 84 days in filing the appeal.
It is submitted that it came to the notice of the Appellant while filing reply to 147 Notice which was sent to the email Id of Mr Khan. The Petitioner submits that delay in filing appeal is not deliberate or intentional but due to bonafide and reasonable cause.”
On perusal of the reasons stated in the affidavit, we find there is sufficient cause and no latches can be attributed to the assessee for late filing of the appeal. Therefore, delay of 84 days in filing this appeal is condoned and we proceed to dispose off this appeal on merits.
4. At the very outset, we notice that the appeal has been dismissed in limine by the CIT(A) without adjudicating the issues raised before him on merits. The reasons for the CIT(A) to dismiss the appeal in limine is on account of assessee not responding to the notices issued from the office of the First Appellate Authority (FAA). The learned AR, by referring to the affidavit filed by the Director of the assessee company, submitted that the notices issued by the FAA’s office were sent to the email ID of Shri. Suresh Kumar S who had left the organization in 2021 and no communication was sent to any other email. It was stated that the fact of dismissing of the appeal came to the notice of the assessee only when assessee had filed a reply to notice under section 147 of the Act which was sent to the email of Mr. Khan (present CFO of assessee company). Therefore, it was submitted that in the interest of justice and equity, the matter may be restored to the files of the CIT(A) to decide the issues on merit.
5. The learned DR supported the order of the CIT(A).
6. We have heard the rival submissions and perused the material on record. The CIT(A) has issued notices for compliance to the assessee to which there were no replies (refer para 2 of the CIT(A)’s order). The reason stated for non- compliance of the notices was that the assessee was never in receipt of the email sent to ex-CFO Mr. Suresh Kumar S who had left the organization on 22.10.2021. In the interest of justice and equity, we are of the view that the matter needs to be examined afresh by the CIT(A). Accordingly, the matter is restored to the files of the CIT(A). The assessee is directed to co-operate with the Revenue and furnish necessary evidence / written submissions in support of its case. The CIT(A) shall afford reasonable opportunity to the assessee to present its case. It is ordered accordingly.
In the result, appeal filed by the assessee is partly allowed for statistical purposes.
Pronounced in the open court on the date mentioned on the caption page.