Loading judgment…
No AI summary yet for this case.
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, CAMP BENCH AT JALANDHAR
Before: Sh. N. K. Saini, Hon’ble & Sh. Ravish Sood
IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL CAMP BENCH AT JALANDHAR Before Sh. N. K. Saini, Hon’ble Vice President and Sh. Ravish Sood, Judicial Member ITA No.626/Asr./2018 : Asstt. Year : 2011-12 Sh. Kunal Gupta, Vs Income Tax Officer, S/o Sh. Sham Gupta, 43, Ward-II(1), Prithvi Nagar, Near Jalandhar Kishanpura, Jalandhar (APPELLANT) (RESPONDENT) PAN No. AFVPG7362M Assessee by : Sh. J. S. Bhasin, Adv. Revenue by : Sh. Bhawani Shankar, DR Date of Hearing : 07.01.2019 Date of Pronouncement : 07.01.2019 ORDER Per N. K. Saini, Vice President: This is an appeal by the assessee against the order dated 25.10.2018 of ld. CIT(A)-1,Jalandhar. 2. Following grounds have been raised in this appeal: “1. That the ld. CIT(A) was not justified in dismissing the assessee’s appeal by way of an ex-parte order, without affording adequate opportunity of hearing to assessee. 2. That the ld. CIT(A) ought to have decided the appeal on merits on various grounds of appeal taken in appeal filed before her, as reproduced in Para 2 of impugned order.” 3. The main grievance o the assessee vide Ground No. 1 relates to the ex-parte order passed by the ld. CIT(A) without giving an opportunity of being heard to the assessee.
ITA No. 84/Asr./2018 2 Simmerjit Singh Bassi 4. Facts of the case in brief are that the assessee e-filed the return of income on 30.09.2011 declaring an income of Rs.4,51,680/- which was processed u/s 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) on 21.12.2011. Later on, the case was selected for scrutiny. The AO framed the assessment u/s 143(3) of the Act at an income of Rs.14,57,200/- by making an addition of Rs.9,65,516/- on account of unaccounted income from job work and Rs.40,000/- on account of disallowance of depreciation on building.
Being aggrieved the assessee carried the matter to the ld. CIT(A) who decided the appeal ex-parte by observing that the assessee failed to pursue the case properly and did not avail any of the opportunities allowed to him to represent the case. The ld. CIT(A) did not decide the appeal on merit. He simply reproduced the facts of the case and dismissed the appeal by observing in para 6 of the impugned order as under: “6. On careful consideration of the material on record, it has been noticed that the assessee has failed to furnish any submissions in support of the grounds of appeal taken by it. It is observed that the assessing officer has passed well reasoned order after considering all the relevant facts of the case. The assessee has not filed any reply or evidence to controvert the findings of the assessing officer. Therefore, for reasons recorded in the order of the assessing officer, the assessment order is upheld and appeal of the assessee is dismissed.”
Now the assessee is in appeal. The ld. Counsel for the assessee at the very outset stated that reasonable opportunity of being heard was not provided by the ld. CIT(A) and that the case was not decided on merit. He requested to
ITA No. 84/Asr./2018 3 Simmerjit Singh Bassi remand the issue back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) to be decided afresh in accordance with law after providing due and reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee.
In his rival submissions, the ld. DR supported the order of the authorities below and submitted that the assessee did not cooperate and never appeared. Therefore, there was no alternative except to decide the appeal of the assessee ex-parte.
We have considered the submissions of both the parties and perused the material available on the record. In the present case, it is an admitted fact that the ld. CIT(A) passed the ex-parte order, but had not given reasons in support of his conclusion. He simply confirmed the view taken by the AO in slip shod manner. It is well settled that nobody should be condemned unheard as per the maxim “audi alteram partem”. We, therefore, by keeping in view the principles of natural justice, deem it appropriate to set aside this case back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) to be adjudicated afresh in accordance with law after providing due and reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. (Order Pronounced in the Court on 07/01/2019)
Sd/- Sd/- (Ravish Sood) (N. K. Saini) JUDICIAL MEMBER VICE PRESIDENT Dated: 07/01/2019 *Subodh*