What did the Tribunal hold?

The Tribunal held that in the interest of justice, the assessee should be granted another opportunity to contest the appeal before the CIT(A). The matter was restored to the CIT(A) for de novo adjudication.

The assessee's appeal was dismissed by the CIT(A) for non-prosecution due to non-compliance with notices. The CIT(A) then passed an order on merits ex parte. The assessee contended that they were not given a proper opportunity to be heard.

What were the issues?

Whether the CIT(A) erred in dismissing the appeal for non-prosecution without affording a proper opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

Aware Suppliers Pvt. Ltd. vs I.T.O., Ward-10(1) | ITAT Kolkata 2020

Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “C”, BENCH KOLKATA

Before: SHRI A.T.VARKEY, JM &DR. A.L.SAINI, AM

For Respondent: Shri Supriyo Pal, JCIT Sr. DR

Hearing: 17/12/2019Pronounced: 23/01/2020

आदेश / O R D E R Per Dr. A.L. Saini, AM:

The captioned appeal filed by the assessee , pertaining to assessment year 2012-13, is directed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal)-15, Kolkata in appeal no. 129/CIT(A)-15/16-17/Wd-10(1)/R&T/Kol, which in turn arises out of an assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer u/s 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short the ‘Act’) dated 22/03/2015.

We have heard the ld. D.R. for the revenue and perused the material available on record. At the time of hearing none appeared on behalf of assessee. We have gone through the grounds of appeal raised by the assessee and noticed that main grievance of the assessee in ground No.2 is that ld CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee on merits without giving proper opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

Aware Suppliers Pvt. Ltd. Assessment Year:2012-13 We have gone through the order of ld CIT(A) and noted that ld CIT(A) issued notices u/s 250 of the Act on 05.03.2018, 09.08.2018,03.10.2018 and 01.11.2018. The assessee did not make compliance of these notices and did not appear before ld CIT(A), therefore, ld CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee for non- prosecution. However, thereafter the ld CIT(A) passed the order on merits.We note that assessee could not represent his case before Ld. CIT(A) and there is no proof of service of notice, therefore we are of the view that in the interest of justice, another opportunity to contest the appeal before the Ld. first appellate authority may be granted to the assessee. The ld DR for the Revenue did not have any objection if the matter is remitted back to the file of the ld CIT(A) for fresh adjudication.We note that in the assessee’s case under consideration, the assessment was carried out u/s 143(3) of the Act and the impugned order passed by the ld. CIT(A), is an ex parte order therefore, we do not wish to make any comments on the merits of the grounds raised by the assessee.

We note that the aim of natural justice is to secure justice, therefore are of the view that one more opportunity should be given to the assessee to plead his case before ld. CIT(A). Therefore, in the interest of justice, we restore the matter back to the file of Ld.CIT(A) for de novo adjudication and pass a speaking order after affording sufficient opportunity of being heard to the assessee.Therefore, we deem it fit and proper to set aside the order of the ld. CIT(A) and remit the matter back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) to adjudicate the issue afresh on merits. For statistical purposes, the appeal of the assessee is allowed.

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

Order pronounced in the Court on 23.01.2020

AWARE SUPPLIERS PVT. LTD.,KOLKATA vs. I.T.O.,WARD-10(1), KOLKATA

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