AASHID SAWJANI,GURGAON vs. ITO, WARD-1(1), GURGAON

Although a number of grounds have been raised by the assessee, they all relate to the order of the CIT(A) in dismissing the appeal filed by the assessee due to delay in filing the appeal by 118 days.

Facts of the case, in brief, are that the assessee is an individual and filed his return of income on 25th September, 2014 declaring nil income. The Assessing Officer in the order passed u/s 143(3) on 30.11.2016 determined the total income at Rs.9,71,598/- wherein he made an addition of Rs.54,320/- being 20% of the expenses claimed out of professional receipts. Similarly, the Assessing Officer made an addition of Rs.4,92,532/- being interest claimed by the assessee as exempt on NRE deposit and Rs.2,96,453/- being short-term capital gain arising out of sale of mutual funds. The assessee filed an appeal before the CIT(A). However, since there was a delay in filing the appeal by 118 days, the ld.CIT(A) did not condone the delay in filing the appeal and dismissed the appeal as not being maintainable.

Aggrieved with such order of the CIT(A), the assessee is in appeal before the Tribunal.

The ld. counsel for the assessee, referring to the contents of the condonation petition along with the affidavit filed, drew the attention of the Bench to the contents of the same and submitted that there was no intention on the part of the assessee to file the appeal belatedly. He submitted that due to the inaction on the part of the then counsel of the assessee the appeal could not be filed in time. Since the assessee was a non-resident at that time and he was mostly out of station, there was a delay in filing the appeal. It has been decided in various decisions that when substantial justice and technical considerations are pitted against each other, cause of substantial justice deserves to be preferred for, the other side cannot claim to have vested right in injustice being done because of a non-deliberate delay. In this view of the matter, I direct the ld.CIT(A) to condone the delay and decide the appeal on merit. The grounds raised by the assessee are accordingly, allowed for statistical purposes.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. The decision was pronounced in the open court on 13.03.2019.