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Facts
The assessee, an individual engaged in real estate, entered into a land development agreement. The assessee did not file a return of income, and the Assessing Officer made an addition based on information from the land agreement. The CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal as the assessee failed to provide submissions or evidence.
Held
The Tribunal set aside the order of the CIT(Appeals) to ensure principles of natural justice and remitted the matter back. The assessee was given one more opportunity to be heard, with a caution to cooperate, failing which the CIT(Appeals) was authorized to pass an order based on available material.
Key Issues
Whether the CIT(Appeals) erred by passing an ex-parte order without considering the case on merits, and whether the assessee was denied natural justice due to lack of opportunity.
Sections Cited
53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, 2(47)(v) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, 45 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, 48 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, 144 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, 133(6) of the Income Tax Act, 1961
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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, KOLKATA-PATNA ‘e-COURT’, KOLKATA
Before: Shri Duvvuru RL Reddy, Vice-(KZ) & Shri Rajesh Kumar
Per Duvvuru RL Reddy, Vice-President (KZ):- The present appeal is directed at the instance of assessee against the order of ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi dated 212nd December, 2023 passed for Assessment Year 2015-16.
(A.Y. 2015-2016) Nagendra Singh 2. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is an individual, who engaged in the real estate business to obtain development rights from land owners by entering into a land development agreement between owners of the land and its developers to construct immovable property in terms of buildings and land appurtenant thereto. From the record, it is found that the assessee has entered into and registered a Land Development agreement with M/s. Agrani Infra Developer Pvt. Limtied, Patna in the financial year 2014-15 relevant to the assessment year 2015- 16. The assessee and the developer agreed with the development arrangement where 20272 sq. ft. of land owned by the assessee along with one other will be constructed upon by the land developer. As per registered land development agreement, the total value of land is Rs.2,21,06,060/- and the value of share owned by the assessee stands at Rs.95,68,874/-, which attracts the provisions of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and the capital gains arising out of such transfer as per provisions of sections 2(47)(v), 45 and 48 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The assesese did not file any return of income. Notice under section 148 was issued to the assessee. The ld. Assessing Officer passed the assessment order under section 144 read with section 147 of the Act dated 08.11.2019 assessing the taxable income at Rs.1,32,34,162/- basing information under section 133(6) in terms of land agreement. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals).
The ld. CIT(Appeals) has given several opportunities to the assessee to substantiate his claim, but the appellant did not file (A.Y. 2015-2016) Nagendra Singh the written submissions and did not represent the case before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Thereafter the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal on 22nd December, 2023.
On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ITAT.
At the time of hearing, it was the submission of the ld. Counsel for the assessee that ld. CIT(Appeals) did not consider the case on merit, rather passed an ex-parte order by upholding the order of ld. Assessing Officer. Therefore, he pleaded to delete the addition made by the ld. Assessing Officer as confirmed by the ld. CIT(Appeals).
At the outset, ld. D.R. brought to my notice that the assessee did not produce the relevant documents as asked by the ld. Assessing Officer during the assessment proceedings. Therefore, the ld. Assessing Officer passed the assessment order assessing the taxable income at Rs.1,32,34,162/-. Thereafter the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals). The ld. CIT(Appeals) has given many opportunities to the assessee and the assessee neither filed written submission nor any evidence before the ld. CIT(Appeals). He further submitted that before the ITAT, the assessee did not substantiate his claim. Therefore, he pleaded to uphold the orders passed by the revenue authorities.
We have heard the rival submissions and perused the material available on record. Considering the facts and (A.Y. 2015-2016) Nagendra Singh circumstances of the case, we are inclined to set aside the order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) in order to meet the principle of natural justice, and remit the matter back to the file of ld. CIT(Appeals) with a direction to provide one more opportunity of being heard to the assessee. At the same breath, we also hereby caution the assessee to promptly co-operate with the proceedings before the Ld. CIT(Appeals) failing which the Ld. CIT(Appeals) shall be at liberty to pass appropriate order in accordance with law and merits based on the materials available on the record. Thus, the grounds raised by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 31/01/2025.