SANJEEV AGGARWAL,NEW DELHI vs. ACIT CENTRAL CIRCLE-15, NEW DELHI

The ld. AR of the assessee submitted at the outset that the ld. CIT(A) had dismissed the appeals of the assessee ex parte on the ground that assessee took repeated adjournments. The assessee has been diligent enough in prosecuting these matters before the Revenue authorities, inasmuch as, the assessee had duly caused appearance in the course of assessment proceedings; and that the appeals before the ld. CIT(A) and also before the Tribunal have been filed within the statutory periods of limitations. It is, however, submitted that no appearance could be entered before the CIT(A), as no notice was physically served on the appellant; that all the notices were sent by e-mail on the e-mail address on database maintained with ITBA by Income Tax Department; that the e-mail address of assessee was agrawal.ankit888@gmail.com, which was of Shri Ankit Agrawal, the authorized representative of appellant who had left the services on 31.12.2018; and that repeated adjournment could not be a reasonable basis for dismissal of appeal. Based on these facts, the ld. AR requests to remand the case back to the file of ld. CIT(A) for deciding the appeal afresh after giving proper opportunity of hearing on merits, as in this matter, initiation of action u/s. 148 in respect of an original assessment framed u/s. 153A/143(3) of the Act, is legally void. The ld. DR reports no objection on the request of assessee for remanding the case back to the file of ld. CIT(A).

We have gone through the record in the light of submissions on either side. The contention of the assessee that no notice was physically served upon the assessee stands uncontroverted on behalf of the Revenue. The circumstances under which the notices sent on e-mail of the then AR of the assessee, who left his services could not be responded have also been explained by the ld. AR before us. In view of these facts and recording ld. DR’s no objection on remand of the cases to the ld. CIT(A), we are of the considered opinion that the matter should go back to the file of ld. CIT(A) with the direction to decide the appeals afresh on merits after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. The assessee is directed to cooperate with the ld. CIT(A) in hearing of appeals. We order accordingly.

In the result, the appeals of the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.