MAHARAJI EDUCATIONAL TRUST,UTTAR PRADESH vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER, WARD 75(3), DELHI, DELHI
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, DELHI BENCH ‘A’: NEW DELHI
Before: SHRI SATBEER SINGH GODARA & SHRI S.RIFAUR RAHMANMaharaji Educational Trust, vs.
PER S. RIFAUR RAHMAN, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER :
The assessee has filed appeal against the order of the Learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-24, New Delhi [“Ld. CIT(A)”, for short] dated 21.11.2024 for the Assessment Year 2018-19. 2. At the outset, ld. AR for the assessee submitted that Assessing Officer passed the order ex-parte by observing in para 5 of assessment order that neither any reply received nor anybody appeared on 19.08.2019. Further he submitted that verification notice u/s 201(1)/201(1A) was issued on 18.09.2019 to reply by 25.09.2019. Neither any reply was received nor anybody appeared on 25.09.2019. He further submitted that Assessing Officer after issuing various notices observed that neither any reply
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received nor anybody appeared and accordingly, AO passed the order u/s 201(1)/201(1A) of the Act. He further submitted that the ld. CIT (A) dismissed the appeal for non-prosecution on the ground that no adjournment application was filed on the last date of hearing i.e. 14.11.2024, but the above fact is not correct as the adjournment application was filed through email. Therefore, he prayed that in the interest of justice, assessee may be provided an opportunity of being heard before the Assessing Officer.
3. On the other hand, ld. DR of the Revenue relied on the orders of the authorities below.
4. Considered the rival submissions and perused the material on record. Upon careful consideration, we find that assessee was not given proper opportunity on merit and also authorities below have not decided the issues on merit. We are of the considered view that in the interest of justice, the matter requires denovo assessment. Therefore, we remit back the issues to the file of the Assessing Officer with the directions to decide the same afresh, after giving adequate opportunity of being heard to the assessee, for which Ld. DR has no objection. Assessee is directed through his counsel to fully cooperate with the AO during the proceedings. We hold and direct accordingly.
5. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced in the open court on this 13TH day of May, 2025
after the conclusion of the hearing. (SATBEER SINGH GODARA)
ACCOUNTANT MEMBER
Dated:13.05.2025
TS
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ITA No.217/DEL/2025