KARTIKAY NAYYAR,NEW DELHI vs. ACIT CENTRAL CIRCLE - 20, NEW DELHI

Since, the identical issues are involved and the grounds of appeal being common for all the above six years i.e. from assessment years 2012-13 to 2016-17, for the sake of convenience, they are herewith addressed in a common order.

A notice u/s 153A of the Act was issued on 22.09.2017. A show cause notice was issued on 22.03.2018 fixing the case for 28.03.2018. Another notice u/s 153A was issued on 02.08.2018. Further, on 07.09.2018, a show cause notice was issued to the assessee and the case was fixed for hearing on 14.09.2018. On 05.10.2018, notice u/s 142(1) along with questionnaire were issued to the assessee and fixing the case for 25.10.2018. In compliance to the said notice, the assessee has not filed any reply except copy of ITR which has been already on record.

Since, there was no compliance to the notices issued, a penalty notice u/s 274 was issued on 09.11.2018 fixing the case for 19.11.2018. Since there was no compliance on 19.11.2018 the AO levied penalty u/s 271(1)(b) of Rs.10,000/-.

The ld. DR argued that there has been a spate on non- compliances before the AO and hence the penalty has been rightly levied.

Heard the arguments of both the parties and perused the material available on record.

The rationale of the AO to levy the penalty vide order dated 06.12.2018 was that nobody attended on 19.11.2018 in response to the show cause issued u/s 274, the facts on record prove that the assessee has indeed replied on 19.11.2018 and explained that the notice dated 05.10.2018 has not been received by them and there was a noting of the Assessing Officer on the letter. Thus, the observation of the Assessing Officer that there was no compliance to the show cause was contrary to the findings on the record. Hence, the penalty levied is liable to be obliterated.