AKSHAYA INFRASTRUCTURE PVT LTD,PONDICHERRY vs. ITO, WARD-1, PONDICHERRY

The assessee filed this appeal against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-Puducherry, in dated 28.09.2018 for the AY 2014-15.

This appeal filed by the assessee is delayed by 44 days, for which, the assessee has filed Affidavit for condonation of the delay of 36 days, the ld.Counsel has submitted that the no.of days was wrongly mentioned in the Affidavit by wrongly mentioning the date of filing of appeal as on 25.01.2019 instead of 28.01.2019. The assessee has filed this appeal before the Tribunal on 28.01.2019 as endorsed by the Registry in the appeal papers and prayed for condoning the delay, to which, the Revenue has not raised any serious objection. Consequently, the delay in filing of the appeal stands condoned and the appeal is disposed off on merits.

The only grievance of the assessee is that the AO and the Ld.CIT(A) have not given any opportunity to the assessee to substantiate its claim before them. The brief facts of the case of the assessee are that the assessee company had filed return of income for the AY 2014-15 admitting a loss of Rs.7,14,34,997/-. The assessee had not responded to any of the assessment proceedings. Hence, the AO completed the assessment u/s.144 assessing the total income of Rs.1,49,08,936/-.

Aggrieved by this, the assessee preferred an appeal before the Ld.CIT(A). Hearing notices were issued to the assessee. One Mr.M.S.Ravichandran, appeared before the Ld.CIT(A) and sought for adjournment on several occasions. Finally, on the 3rd occasion, he did not appear before the Ld.CIT(A). After considering the material available on record, the Ld.CIT(A) confirmed the orders passed by the AO u/s.144.

On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the Tribunal. The Ld.Counsel for the assessee submitted that due to unavoidable circumstances, the assessee was not able to substantiate the case of the assessee before the lower authorities and he pleaded for one more opportunity.

Per contra, the Ld.DR submitted that both the authorities have given sufficient opportunities to the assessee but there was no response from the assessee. Hence, the authorities below passed an ex parte order.

We have heard both the parties, perused the materials available on record and gone through the orders of authorities below.

Admittedly, the AO had passed assessment order u/s.144 of the Act and the Ld.CIT(A) had also passed an ex-parte order. The contention of the assessee’s representative is that due to unavoidable circumstances, the assessee/his representative failed to appear before the authorities below. Considering the facts and circumstances of the assessee’s case, we are of the considered opinion that it is a fit case to grant one more opportunity to the assessee to substantiate its case before the AO.

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