BORAH & SONS PRIVATE LIMITED,NAGAON vs. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, CIRCLE-2, GUWAHATI

At the outset itself Shri S.P Bhati, FCA, ld.AR of the assessee drew our attention to the fact that impugned appellate order is an ex parte which has been passed by the ld. CIT(Appeal), Guwahati without giving proper notice/opportunities to the assessee. According to the ld. AR though the ld. CIT(A) fixed the matter on four occasions in the year 2017 and in the year 2018. However, the ld. CIT(A) himself has noted that the notices were sent by e-mail and the assessee was not technically savy in the year 2017 and in the year 2018. And therefore, the assessee was not able to inform the ld.AR of the assessee about the fixing of the case, which has resulted in the ld. CIT(A) passing ex parte order without going into the merits of the issues raised by the assessee in the appeal. Therefore, he pleaded before us that the appeal may be restored to the file of the ld. CIT(A) for fresh adjudication.

Per Contra, ld. DR vehemently opposed the plea of the ld.AR and contended that the assessee was not interested in pursuing the appeal before the ld. CIT(A), which has resulted in dismissal of the appeal of assessee. Therefore, he does not want us to interfere in the impugned order passed by the ld. CIT(A). 4. Having heard both the parties and after perusing the material available on records, we note that the ld. CIT(A) has fixed the matter on four occasions. But we note that on three occasions notices were sent by e-mail in the year 2017 and in the year 2018. According to the ld. Counsel, the official(s) handling the e-mail etc. was not aware of the procedure followed in Income-tax cases and therefore, could not promptly inform the ld.AR of the assessee, which resulted in non-appearance by the ld. AR before the ld. CIT(A) and resulted in dismissal of the appeal of assessee. We note that the ld. CIT(A) has decided the appeal ex parte without going into the merits of the appeal. We note that since the assessee did not get proper opportunity for the reasons discussed above, we are inclined to set aside the impugned order and restore the appeal back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) and direct him to dispose of the appeal in accordance with law after affording opportunity of being heard or after going through the written submissions, if filed by the asessee. The AR of the assessee is directed to furnish e-mail id also to the ld. CIT(A) so that communication can be ensured in respect of date of hearing.

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