MOHIT GARG,NEW DELHI vs. ACIT CENTRAL CIRCLE-16, NEW DELHI

These three appeals are filed by the assessee for assessment years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 against separate orders of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-XXVI, [hereinafter referred to CIT (Appeals)] New Delhi.

The ld. Counsel for the assessee, at the outset, submits that in all these cases the ld. CIT (Appeals) passed the order ex-parte without giving reasonable opportunity to the assessee to present his case. The ld. Counsel for the assessee submits that none of the notices which the ld. CIT (Appeals) referred to in the order were served on the assessee. The ld. Counsel further submits that referring to Form 35 and the column therein as to whether notices/communication may be sent on-line it was specifically stated by the assessee “No” thereby indicating that assessee is not willing to receive any notices/communication by e-mail. This is for the reason that assessee is not conversant with the computer technology. Therefore, the ld. Counsel submits that the notices sent by the ld. CIT (Appeals) through mail were not received by the assessee and, therefore, requested that the appeals may be restored back to the file of the ld. CIT (Appeals) for adjudicating afresh on merits, after hearing the assessee by providing sufficient opportunity to substantiate the claims of the assessee.

The ld. DR has no serious objection.

Heard both the parties, perusing the orders of the authorities below and taking the totality of facts and circumstances into consideration in the interest of justice, these appeals are restored to the file of the ld. CIT (Appeals) for de novo adjudication after providing adequate opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

In the result, all the three appeals of the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.