M/S BAJRANG FURNITURE,KAITHAL vs. ACIT, CIRCLE, KURUKSHETRA

Briefly the facts of the case are that survey action under 133A was carried out at the premises of the assessee wherein the assessee surrendered a sum of Rs 3,00,00,000/- and subsequently, the same was offered in the return of income filed on 16/10/2016 declaring an income of Rs 3,02,87,420/-. During the course of assessment proceedings, the AO held that the income so surrendered is liable to be brought to tax under the head “Income from other sources” in view of the provisions of section 115BBE of the Act and the assessment was accordingly completed under section 143(3) vide order dt. 31/12/2018. Thereafter, the assessee carried the matter in appeal before the Ld. CIT(A) where as part of its ground of appeal, the assessee challenged the order so passed by the AO on an invalid return of income as well as on merits of the case. The ld CIT(A) however, dismissed the appeal of the assessee on account of non- prosecution, and being aggrieved, the assessee is in appeal before us.

During the course of hearing, the Ld. AR submitted that the Ld. CIT(A) has passed an ex-parte order without providing adequate opportunity to the assessee. It was submitted that the notices so issued by him were not served on the assessee and therefore, the assessee was prevented by sufficient cause for not attending to the proceedings before CIT(A). It was submitted that assessee be allowed one last opportunity and the matter may be remitted to the file of the Ld. CIT(A) to decide the same afresh and it was submitted that the assessee shall attend to the proceedings before the Ld. CIT(A) and file the necessary information/documentation.

Per contra, the Ld. DR relied on the order of the lower authorities.

After hearing both the parties and perusing the material available on the record, we find that the assessee deserves one last opportunity and cannot be condemned unheard and therefore, keeping in view principles of substantial justice, the matter is remitted to the file of the Ld. CIT(A) to decide the same afresh after providing reasonable opportunity to the assessee.

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