ASHOK SURIAPPAMBALAYAM ESHWARAN,BELLARY vs. ACIT, CIRCLE-1 , BELLARY

The brief facts of the case are that the assessee is an individual and filed his return of income on 26/06/2022. Subsequently filed revised return on 13/07/2022 and another revised return on 07/09/2022 and claimed deductions under Chapter VIA of the Act. The assessee also sought for the refund of the tax. This case was selected for scrutiny under CASS to verify

Similarly the AO had also proposed to impose penalty u/s. 270A of the Act for under reporting the income because of the misreporting of income. The assessee submitted that he has some health issues and also some family disputes and therefore he went abroad and only when the return of income for a subsequent year was filed, the auditor informed about the assessment order and thereafter the assessee had also remitted the entire tax dues as per the section 144 order and therefore submitted that the penalty u/s. 270A may not be levied. The AO not accepted the said explanations had confirmed the penalty u/s. 270A of the Act.

The assessee challenged both the orders before the Ld.CIT(A) with a delay of 402 and 219 days respectively. In the delay condonation applications, the assessee had narrated the circumstances under which he was prevented from filing the appeal in time and also informed that the assessee had deposited the entire tax dues pursuant to the assessment order and therefore prayed that the delay may be condoned. The Ld.CIT(A) not satisfied with the reasons had rejected the delay condonation applications and thereby dismissed the appeals also.

As against these orders, the assessee is filing these appeals before this Tribunal.

At the time of hearing, the Ld.AR submitted that because of the family disputes and the divorce proceedings, he was not in good health condition

The Ld.DR, on the other hand, submitted that the assessee had not responded to all the notices issued by the AO and therefore the AO had made the best judgment assessment u/s. 144 of the Act. Apart from that, the assessee had filed these appeals with an inordinate delay for which no proper explanation has been offered by the assessee and therefore the delay not condoned by the Ld.CIT(A) is in order and prayed to dismiss the appeals.

We have heard the arguments of both sides and perused the materials available on record.

The AO had made the assessment u/s. 144 of the Act by disallowing the deductions claimed under Chapter VIA of the Act. The reason given by the assessee for not responding to the said notices are that he had some family disputes and also he has some health issues and to avoid the said problems, he went abroad for getting some mental peace. Further, it is the case of the assessee that he has not looked into the portal and therefore he was not able to respond to the various notices issued by the AO. It is also a fact that the assessment is a best judgment assessment and in spite of the said fact, the assessee had deposited the entire demands to the department. Thereafter the assessee approached Ld.CIT(A). The submission of the assessee is that he came to know about the assessment order only when the

We have considered the said submissions made by the assessee and satisfied that the assessee was prevented with sufficient cause to approach the Ld.CIT(A) in time. We have also considered the fact that the assessee had paid the demands before filing the appeal before the Ld.CIT(A). Considering the said facts, we are inclined to grant one more opportunity to the assessee to appear before the Ld.CIT(A). We therefore, condone the said delay of 402 and 219 days in filing the appeals before the Ld.CIT(A) and remit this issue to the file of the Ld.CIT(A) for considering the issue on merits. We also direct the Ld.CIT(A) to grant a personal hearing before concluding the appeal proceedings.

In the result, both the appeals filed by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.