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Facts
The assessee failed to appear before the Assessing Officer and the CIT(A), leading to best judgment assessments and dismissal of appeals. The appeals before the Tribunal were filed with a significant delay.
Held
The Tribunal condoned the delay in filing the appeals, recognizing a reasonable cause. While acknowledging the procedural lapses, the Tribunal restored the matters to the Assessing Officer for a fresh assessment to ensure fairness.
Key Issues
Whether the delay in filing appeals can be condoned due to reasonable cause? Whether the matters should be remanded for a denovo assessment given the assessee's failure to appear before lower authorities?
Sections Cited
147, 144, 250
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, PUNE BENCHES “B”, PUNE
Before: DR.MANISH BORAD & SHRI VINAY BHAMORE
आदेश / ORDER
PER BENCH :
The captioned appeals at the instance of assessee pertaining to A.Ys. 2013-14 to 2017-18 are directed against the separate orders of National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi passed u/s.250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter also called ‘the Act’) arising out of respective Assessment orders passed u/s.147 r.w.s.144 of the Act.
Registry has informed that all the appeals before this Tribunal are time barred by 351 days. Assessee has filed an affidavit explaining the reasons which led to delay in filing of the appeals. After hearing both the sides and considering the averments made in the affidavit, we are satisfied that assessee was prevented from filing the appeals within the stipulated time for ‘reasonable cause’. We therefore condone the delay of 351 days in filing the appeals and admit the appeals for adjudication placing reliance on the judgments of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Collector, Land Acquisition, Anantnag & Anr. Vs. Mst. Katiji & Ors. reported in (1987) 2 SCC 107 and in the case of Inder Singh Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh judgment dated 21.03.2025 (2025 INSC 382).
At the outset, ld. Counsel for the assessee requested for setting aside the matters in the instant bunch of appeals to the file of ld. Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) as the assessee failed to appear before the Ld. Assessing Officer as well as the ld.CIT(A).
On the other hand, ld. Departmental Representative vehemently argued supporting the orders of the lower authorities but was fair enough in not opposing the request of the assessee for restoring the issues to the file of ld.JAO.
We have heard the rival contentions and perused the record placed before us. We note that the assessee is an individual and based on the information about cash deposits for the impugned years with Shri Renuka Mata Multistate Urban Coop. Credit Society Ltd., re-assessment proceedings u/s.147 were initiated followed by validly serving statutory notices. However, assessee failed to appear resulting into best judgment assessments by the ld. Assessing Officer making additions in the hands of assessee. Aggrieved with the additions assessee filed appeals before ld.CIT(A) but again assessee failed to furnish relevant information and details as called for in support of grounds and even the assessee did not respond to the Video conference notices which led to dismissal of the appeals.
However, considering the prayer made by ld. Counsel for the assessee and observing that the assessment orders are best judgment assessments passed u/s.147 r.w.s.144 of the Act, we in the larger interest of justice and being fair to both the parties deem it to restore all the issues raised in the instant bunch of appeals to the file of Ld. Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for denovo assessment. Needless to mention that ld.JAO in the course of set-aside proceedings shall afford a reasonable opportunity of hearing to the assessee Assessee is directed to update latest email id and contact detail on ITBA portal. Assessee is also directed to remain vigilant and not to take adjournment unless otherwise required for reasonable cause. Impugned orders are set aside and the effective grounds of appeal raised by the assessee in this bunch of appeals are allowed for statistical purposes.
In the result, all the appeals of the assessee bearing to 715/PUN/2025 are allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced on this 31st day of July, 2025.