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Facts
The assessee filed an appeal against an ex-parte order by the CIT(A) which upheld the Assessing Officer's order. The original assessment was reopened, and a notice under section 148 was issued. The assessee failed to comply with notices, leading to an ex-parte assessment order under section 144.
Held
The Tribunal noted that both the assessment order and the CIT(A)'s order were ex-parte. The CIT(A) dismissed the appeal on procedural grounds of non-compliance without examining the merits. The Tribunal found this unjustified and decided to provide the assessee another opportunity.
Key Issues
Whether dismissing an appeal on procedural grounds without considering the merits is justified, and whether the assessee should be granted another opportunity to present their case.
Sections Cited
250, 148, 144, 250(6)
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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “PATNA BENCH, PATNA
Before: Shri Sonjoy Sarma & Shri Sanjay Awasthi
Assessment Year: 2010-11 Rameshwar Prasad………….. ………...…..…………………....Appellant Purendu Nagar, Near Shiv Mandir, Phulwarisharif, Patna-851117. [PAN: AFDPP7901H] vs. ACIT, Circle-2(1), Begusarai…………….............................…..…..... Respondent Appearances by: Shri D. V. Pathy, AR, appeared on behalf of the appellant. Shri Ashwani Kr. Singal, Sr. DR, appeared on behalf of the Respondent. Date of concluding the hearing : January 08, 2025 Date of pronouncing the order : January 13, 2025 आदेश / ORDER
Per Sonjoy Sarma, Judicial Member:
The present appeal has been preferred by the assessee against the order dated 19.07.2023 of the National Faceless Appeal Centre [hereinafter referred to as ‘CIT(A)’] passed u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’).
Brief facts of the case are that original return of the assessee was filed on 31.03.2011 showing a total income of Rs.12,65,190/-. Subsequently, the assessment proceedings for the year under consideration was reopened by issuing a notice u/s 148 of the Act with the prior approval of the PCIT, Bhagalpur. In response to the notice u/s 148 of the Act, the assessee failed to make any compliance in respect of the notices issued time to time by the Assessing Officer. Since, the assessee remained non-cooperative, the Assessing Officer framed assessment order u/s 144 of the Act by making an addition of
Dissatisfied with the above order, the assessee filed an appeal before the ld. CIT(A) but the assessee has failed to appear on three consecutive dates despite serving notices to the assessee. The ld. CIT(A) accordingly passed an order by dismissing the appeal of the assessee by the upholding the order of the Assessing Officer.
Aggrieved, the assessee filed the appeal before this Tribunal. Primarily, the ld. AR contended that both assessment order and appellate order are ex parte orders and the assessee did not get proper opportunity to present its case before the authorities below. He further prayed that the assessee may be granted one more opportunity to substantiate its claim.
On the other hand, the ld. DR argued that sufficient opportunities have already been provided to the assessee and the assessee failed to respond. The order passed by the ld. CIT(A) was justified on account of failure of the assessee to comply with the notices.
We, after hearing the rival submission of the parties and perusing the materials available on record, find that both the orders of the Assessing Officer and ld. CIT(A) are ex parte order and even if providing sufficient opportunity to the assessee by the lower authorities, the assessee has failed to respond properly. We further note that the order of the ld. CIT(A) is an ex parte order against the assessee and the ld. CIT(A) had dismissed the appeal without deciding the appeal on merits only on the ground of non-compliance on the part of the assessee. We find that the dismissal of appeal solely on the procedural ground without examining the merits of the case which is essential u/s 250(6) of the Act, is not justified. We deem it fit to provide the assessee one more opportunity to substantiate its case to ensure just and fair 2 Assessment Year: 2010-11 Rameshwar Prasad assessment. We, therefore, remand back the issue to the file of the ld. CIT(A) with a direction to re-examine the case on merits after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee to represent its case. We also direct the assessee to diligently comply with the notices issued and participate sincerely in the proceeding to avoid any delay.
In terms of the above, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Kolkata, the 13th January, 2025.