SRI. ARAVIND KUMAR BOINPALLY,TELANGANA vs. ITO, WARD, INTL. TAXATION-1(1), BENGALURU

The brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a non-resident Indian and during the period from 19/11/2022, he was residing at USA. The AO based on the information obtained through the insight portal in accordance with the Risk management strategy formulated by the CBDT, had come to the conclusion that the assessee had undertaken some transactions of purchasing an immovable property but no return of income was filed by him. Therefore the AO made draft assessment order and communicated the same to the assessee for which the assessee filed his objections before the Ld.DRP and also enclosed various documents in support of its case, but unfortunately the Ld.DRP had refused to look into the additional documents filed before it for the reason that the same was not

As against the said order, the assessee is in appeal before this Tribunal. At the time of hearing, the Ld.AR submitted that the assessee is an NRI and during the notice period, he was residing in USA and he has no e-filing account in the income tax portal. The Ld.AR further submitted that all the notices were not received by the assessee except the notice dated 07/12/2023 and thereafter the assessee created his profile on 11/12/2023. Thereafter the assessee came to know about the various notices issued but by that time, the AO had passed the draft assessment order and therefore the assessee filed all the details before the Ld.DRP but unfortunately the Ld.DRP had refused to look into the documents submitted by the assessee by way of additional evidence and therefore the Ld.AR submitted that the assessee was not granted any effective opportunity to substantiate his claim and prayed for another opportunity to appear before the AO. The Ld.AR also relied on the order of this Tribunal in IT(IT)A No. 2126/Bang/2024 dated 27/12/2024 in support of his contention in which similar dispute was decided by this Tribunal.

The Ld.DR relied on the order of the lower authorities and prayed to dismiss the appeal filed by the assessee.

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

We have perused the documents filed by the assessee before the Ld.DRP and found the assessee was a non-resident Indian and he has no e- account in the income tax portal and therefore his contention that notices were not received by him seems to be a genuine one. Even though the assessee had not responded to the various notices issued by the AO, pursuant to the draft assessment order issued u/s. 144C of the Act, the assessee tried to explain the facts before the Ld.DRP and also furnished the documents to substantiate his claim. But unfortunately, the Ld.DRP in para nos. 4.1.11 and 4.1.12 had rejected the additional evidence filed by the assessee since the same are not in accordance with the DRP rules and also the additional evidence were filed at the fag end of the limitation period. From the said finding, we understand that the assessee is having the documents but the DRP on technical grounds had rejected the said documents and passed the directions. We are of the view that the said finding of the Ld.DRP is against the principles of natural justice. Further, in the appeal order cited by the Ld.AR in para no. 15, the Tribunal in IT(IT)A No. 2126/Bang/2024 had given the following finding: “15. In view of the above facts, we restore the whole appeal back to the file of the learned assessing officer with a direction to the assessee to substantiate before learned assessing officer that there is no income chargeable to tax in the hands of the assessee in India except, the salary income and income from other sources which is stated to be in the computation of total income filed before the learned dispute resolution panel and further there is no income assessable u/s. 69 of the Act in case of the assessee. The ld. assessing officer may verify the same and decide the issue in accordance with the law, first passing the draft assessment order. The assessee may thereafter file an objection before the learned dispute resolution panel, if he wishes to object to the draft assessment order.”

The facts involved in the present appeal are similar to the facts involved in the decision relied on by the Ld.AR. In the said case also, the Ld.DRP had not considered the documents filed by the assessee by citing the technical grounds as well as the limitation grounds and in the present case also similar finding was given by the Ld.DRP. In such circumstances, the Tribunal had held that the assessee was not heard properly and

We are also in agreement with the view expressed by the Tribunal in the earlier order dated 27/12/2024 and by following the said order, we are also setting aside the order of the AO and restore the matter to his file with the direction to consider the issue afresh after receiving the documents filed by the assessee and pass a fresh draft assessment order and thereafter pass a final order.

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