SRI SRI KALIMATA ANANDMAYEE CHARITABLE TRUST,KOLKATA vs. ITO(EXEMPTION),WD-1(3), KOLKATA

The assessee in the present case is a trust which filed its return of income for the year under consideration originaly on 03.01.2012 declaring its total income at Rs. 97,136/-. The said return was initially processed by the AO u/s 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on 27.02.2013. He however reopened the assessment subsequently by issuing notice u/s 148 on 18.12.2015 and completed assessment in pursuance of the said notice vide order dated 01.04.2016 passed u/s 143(3)/147 of the Act determining the total income of the assessee at Rs. 20,00,000/-.

Assessment Year: 2011-12 Sri Sri Kalimata Anandmayee Charitable Trust 3. Against the order passed by the AO u/s 143(3)/147 of the Act, an appeal was preferred by the assessee before the Ld. CIT(A) and vide his appellate order dated 18.09.2019, the ld. CIT(A) allowed the said appeal of the assessee partly. Subsequently the ld. CIT(A) noticed certain mistakes in the said order passed on 18.09.2019 and the said mistakes were rectified by him by passing the order dated 16.12.2019 whereby he dismissed the appeal of the assessee. Aggrieved by the order of rectification / modification passed by the Ld. CIT(A), the assessee has preferred this appeal before the Tribunal.

At the time of hearing fixed in this case today, none has appeared on behalf of the assessee. It is observed that the preliminary issue raised by the assessee in ground no. 2 while challenging the impugned rectification / modification passed by the Ld. CIT(A) is that he neither gave any notice to the assessee of his intention to make the amendment nor he allowed reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee as required by the provision of section 154(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Sub-section (1) of section 154 specifically empowers an Income Tax Authority including the ld. CIT(A) to amend an order passed by it under the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961. Sub-section (3) of section 154 however provides that an amendment, which has the effect of enhancement of assessment or reducing the refund or otherwise increasing the liability of assessee, shall not be made u/s 154 unless the ld. CIT(A) has given notice to the assessee of its intention to do so and has allowed the assessee a reasonable opportunity of being heard. A perusal of the impugned order passed by the Ld. CIT(A) shows that no such notice was given to the assessee nor any opportunity of being heard was also given by him to the Assessment Year: 2011-12 Sri Sri Kalimata Anandmayee Charitable Trust assessee before making the amendment which had the effect of dismissing the appeal of the assessee as against allowing the same in part as done by the original appellate order dated 18.09.2019 and this positions is not disputed even by the ld. DR. I, therefore, set aside the impugned modification / rectification order passed by the ld. CIT(A) and remit the matter back to him for deciding the same afresh ater complying with the mandatory requirement of sub-section (3) of section 154.

In the result, the appeal of the assessee is treated as allowed for statistical purpose. Order Pronounced in the Open Court on 6th July, 2020.