S. RAJENDRAN,NEYVELI T.S. vs. ITO, WARD-5, CUDDALORE

This appeal filed by the assessee is directed against the order of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi dated 12.09.2022 relevant to the assessment year 2012-13.

The appeal filed by the assessee is delayed by 27 days in filing the appeal, for which, the assessee has filed a petition for condonation of the delay, to which; the ld. DR has not raised any serious objection. Consequently, since the assessee was prevented by sufficient cause, the delay in filing of the appeal stands condoned and the appeal is admitted for adjudication.

Brief facts of the case are that from the records available with the Department, the Assessing Officer has noticed that the assessee made cash deposit of ₹.17,00,000/- into his saving bank account during the financial year 2011-12, but, offered only salary income of ₹.6,22,120/- in the return filed for the assessment year 2012-13 on 12.07.2012. Accordingly, the assessment for the A.Y. 2012-13 was reopened under section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [“Act” in short] with the reason to believe that the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment. Accordingly, notice under section 148 of the Act dated 29.03.2019 was issued. Since there was no response from the assessee, notice under section 142(1)(ii) of the Act dated 30;07.2019 was issued calling for the details. The assessee appeared before the Assessing Officer on 05.09.2019 and furnished copy of passbook of Canara Bank account, but did not furnish any other details/documents as called for. Since the assessee has not responded to various notices issued, after verification of the Canara Bank account details, the Assessing Officer proceeded to conclude the best judgement assessment under section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act dated 30.10.2019 by assessing total income of the assessee at ₹.28,00,303/- after making various additions. On appeal, the ld. CIT(A) dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee since the assessee has not responded to various notices issued by the ld. CIT(A) or filed any supporting documents.

On being aggrieved, the assessee is in appeal before the Tribunal. None appeared on behalf of the assessee despite notice of hearing has been issued to the assessee. Hence, we proceed to decide the appeal on merits after hearing the ld. DR.

We have heard the ld. DR, perused the materials available on record and gone through the orders of authorities below. The Assessing Officer has completed the assessment under section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act and the ld. CIT(A) (NFAC) has also completed exparte appellate order despite various notices issued by the authorities below. In this case, against the notice under section 148 of the Act, there was no response from the assessee. Against the notices under section 143(2) and 142(1)(ii) of the Act also there was no response from the assessee. We have gone through the best judgement assessment order passed under section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act and also appellate order passed by the ld. CIT(A). We are of the considered opinion that the assessee shall be afforded one more opportunity of being heard to substantiate his case to meet the ends of natural justice. Accordingly, we remit the matter back to the file of the Assessing Officer to decide the issues afresh after considering the details as may be filed by the assessee. The assessee is also directed to furnish complete details before the Assessing Officer without fail.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.