M/S RAICHUR CENTRAL CO-OPERATIVE BANK LIMITED ,RAICHUR vs. DIRECTOR OF INCOME TAX (INTELLIGENCE & CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION) , BANGALORE

The assessee is a co-operative bank. The Ld DIT (Intelligence & Criminal Investigation) noticed that the assessee has not filed Annual Information return as required by the provisions of Sec.285BA of the Act for all the years under consideration. Accordingly he levied penalty u/s 271FA of the Act in all the years under consideration for the above said failure.

The assessee challenged the orders so passed by Ld DIT (Intelligence & Criminal Investigation) by filing appeals before Ld CIT(A). The first appellate authority, however, took the view that the order passed u/s 271FA of the Act is not an appealable order in terms of provisions of sec.246A of the Act. Accordingly he dismissed all the appeals filed by the assessee before him holding them as infructuous.

Aggrieved, the assessee has filed these appeals before us.

The Ld A.R submitted that impugned penalty has been levied u/s 271FA of the Act and the said section falls under “Chapter XXI” of the Income tax Act. Adverting our attention to clause (q) of sub.sec.(1) of sec.246A of the Act, the Ld A.R submitted that an order imposing penalty under Chapter XXI is included in the list of appealable orders before Ld CIT(A). Accordingly he submitted that the Ld CIT(A) was not correct in law in holding that the impugned orders are not appealable before him.

The Ld D.R, on the contrary, supported the orders passed by Ld CIT(A).

We heard the parties and perused the record. We have gone through the provisions of sec.246A, which lists out the orders appealable before Commissioner (Appeals). Clause (q) of sub.sec.(1) of sec.246A reads as under:- “(q) an order imposing a penalty under Chapter XXI” Admittedly, the impugned orders have been passed u/s 271FA, which falls under Chapter XXI of the Income tax Act. Hence the Ld CIT(A) was not correct in law in observing that the orders passed u/s 271FA are not appealable before him u/s 246A of the Act. Accordingly we set aside the orders passed by him for all the years under consideration. Since the Ld CIT(A) has not adjudicated the grounds on merits, we restore all the matters to his file for adjudicating the appeals of the assessee on merits.

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