S. R. INTERNATIONAL PAPER MILLS PVT. LTD.,KOLKATA vs. I.T.O., WARD - 8(4), KOLKATA, KOLKATA

At the outset, the Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the Ld. CIT(A) has decided the appeals ex-parte as the assessee could not appear on various dates) fixed for hearing. The Ld. Counsel submitted that the notices sent by the Ld. CIT(A) were not received by the assessee and therefore the appeal of the assessee remained unattended before the Ld. CIT(A). The ld. Counsel of the assessee prayed before the 2 Assessment Year: 2014-15 S.R. International Paper Mills Pvt. Ltd. Bench that the assessee may kindly be given one more opportunity to defend its case on merit before the Ld. AO by restoring this appeal to the file of the Ld. AO as before AO also compliance of the notices could not be made.

The Ld. D.R on the other hand strongly objected the prayers of the Ld. A.R by submitting that despite several opportunities granted, the assessee did not appear and therefore the said request of the counsel of the assessee may kindly be dismissed.

After hearing the rival parties and perusing the material on record, we observe that the assessee’s appeal was decided ex-parte when the assessee failed to turn up on the various dates fixed for hearings. We even note that the notices issued by the AO were not complied with during the assessment proceedings. Therefore , in order to meet the ends of justice, the assessee deserves to be given one more opportunity to defend its case on merits before the AO. Accordingly we restore the appeal to the file of the Ld. AO for the reasons cited above with the directions to decide the same on merits by affording the assessee a reasonable opportunity of hearing. Simultaneously we also direct the assessee to cooperate in the disposal of this appeal.

In the result, all the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.