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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, DELHI BENCH: ‘SMC’ NEW DELHI
Before: SHRI H.S. SIDHU
This appeal filed by the Assessee is directed against the Order dated 19.04.2018 of the Ld. CIT(A), New Delhi relevant to assessment year 2014-15 on the following grounds: -
1. “That Ld. CIT(A)-IV erred in restricting the disallowance of deduction claimed u/s 80IC to Rs. 49,56,630/- without appreciating the facts and circumstances of the case.
2. That the ld. CIT(A)-IV has grossly erred in misunderstanding and wrongly applying the provisions of law for the purposes of section 80-IC of the Income Tax Act made by the appellant;
3. The Ld. CIT(A)-IV is not justified in law and facts and circumstances of the case in disallowing the deduction u/s 80IC of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
4. The Ld. CIT(A)-IV without appreciating the correct facts of the case is not justified in law and facts and circumstances of the case in making the allegation upon the appellant that appellant is not doing any manufacturing activities. 2 A.Y. 2014-15 Genpure Zheng Filters P. Ltd.
5. That the Ld.CIT(A)-IV has dismissed the appeal without affording proper opportunity to the assessee. That the assessee has not received any notice by post or by hand.
6. That Ld. CIT(A) –IV has passed order without serving any statutory notice is bad in law and against the principle of natural justice and should be quashed ab-initio.
7. Assessee has every right to make, add, delete, modify or alter any ground of appeal at the time of hearing.”
Facts narrated by the revenue authorities are not disputed by both the parties, hence, the same are not repeated here for the sake of brevity.
Ld. counsel for the assessee submitted that the Ld. CIT(A) has passed the exparte order without affording proper opportunity to the assessee, despite the fact that the assessee has not received any notice by post or by hand. He further submitted that Ld. CIT(A) has passed a order without serving any statutory notice which is against the principle of natural justice and should be quashed ab-initio. 4. Ld. DR relied upon the order of the authorities below. 5. I have heard both the parties and perused the records. I have also gone through the exparte order passed by the Ld. CIT(A). I find that Ld. CIT(A) has passed the exparte order by holding as under:-
“I have carefully perused the assessment order and find that the AO has denied deduction u/s. 80IC to the appellant by passing a speaking order.
As discussed above, the appellant has not attended the proceeding and has not submitted any evidence even during the appellate proceeding to prove that 3 A.Y. 2014-15 Genpure Zheng Filters P. Ltd. it was engaged in any manufacturing activity during the year under consideration. It is held that AO is fully justified in denying deduction to the appellant company u/s. 80IC of the Act. The order of the AO is upheld. The grounds of appeal are dismissed.”
5.1 After perusing the aforesaid finding of the Ld. CIT(A) in his impugned order, I am of the view that there is no doubt assessee remained non-cooperative before the Ld. CIT(A) and the Ld. CIT(A) has passed the exparte order and confirmed the action of the AO in a routine manner, without discussing in detail the facts and circumstance of the case and also did not deal the issue on merit and passed a non-speaking order, which in my opinion, is not in accordance with the principles of natural justice and it is an erroneous approach. It is a settled law that even an administrative order has to be speaking one.
6. In this regard I draw support from Hon’ble Apex Court in the case M/s Sahara India (Farms) Vs. CIT & Anr. in [2008] 300 ITR 403 has held that even “an administrative order has to be consistent with the rules of natural justice”.
In the background of the aforesaid discussions and respectfully following the precedent, I remit back the issues in dispute to the files of the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax 4 A.Y. 2014-15 Genpure Zheng Filters P. Ltd. (Appeals) for hearing on 08.01.2019 at 10.00 AM with the directions to consider each and every aspects of the issues involved in the Appeal and decide the same afresh, after passing a speaking order and considered all the evidences/documents. Needless to add that the assessee should be given adequate opportunity of being heard.
Assessee is also directed to appear before the Ld. CIT(A) on the scheduled date of hearing, as aforesaid and file all the evidences / documents before him to substantiate its case and did not take any unnecessary adjournment.
In the result, the Assessee’s appeal is allowed for statistical purposes.