M/S. SOUTH INDIA ARTISTES ASSOCIATION,CHENNAI vs. DCIT, EXEMPTIONS,, CHENNAI

Brief facts of the case are that the appeal was instituted on 07.03.2023 against the assessment order dated 11.12.2019 passed under section 143(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') by the Assessing Officer (in short 'the AO') CPC for the Assessment Year 2017-18. The assessee further challenged the order of assessment u/s 143(1) of the Act before the ld.CIT(A) who dismissed the appeal of the assessee in limine on the ground of delay of 3 years and 2 months days in filing appeal. Aggrieved, assessee is in appeal before us.

The ld. Counsel for assessee submitted before us that the Society was founded in the year 1952 and as per the Society By law the Governing Body of the Society shall be elected by their members once in three years. The Last election of the assessee society was held on June 23 2019 and it was challenged before the Madras High Court. The Tamilnadu Government vide its Government Order MS 177 CT and R M1 dated 6th November 2019 appointed a special officer to conduct administration of assessee society. The Counting of votes were put under abeyance and special officer was appointed for assessee society by the Tamilnadu Government to conduct the operation of the Society. Only in February 2022 the Madras High Court ruled that the election held in 2019 was valid and ordered initiation of vote counting process Subsequently new team was elected in March 2022. Ld. Authorized Representative further contended that there were no Competent Authority from June 2019 to March 2022 to decide on the process of appeal and further course of action on the intimation under section 143 (1) of the Act. Hence there was delay in filing the appeal before the ld. CIT(A) and requested to condone the delay and remit the file back to the ld. CIT(A) for fresh adjudication.