M/S ATTRACTIVE FINANCIAL ADVISORY PVT. LTD.,KOLKATA vs. I.T.O.,WARD-7(1), KOLKATA

The assessee in the present case is a Company, which filed its return of income for the year under consideration on 27.03.2010 declaring total income of Rs.2,000/-. Although the said return was initially processed by the Assessing Officer under section 143(1), the assessment was subsequently reopened by him and a notice under section Assessment Year: 2009-2010 M/s. Attractive Financial Advisory Pvt. Limited 148 was issued by him on 28.03.2016 after recording the reasons. In response to the said notice, the return of income was filed by the assessee on 06.12.2016. Thereafter a notice under section 143(2) was issued by the Assessing Officer. There was, however, no compliance on the part of the assessee to the said notice issued by the Assessing Officer as well as the subsequent notices issued under section 142(1). The Assessing Officer, therefore, proceeded to complete the assessment on the basis of material available on record and in the assessment so completed under section 147/143(3) of the Act vide an order dated 06.12.2016, addition of Rs.20,00,000/- was made by the Assessing Officer to the total income of the assessee under section 68 on account of accommodation entry allegedly received by the assessee.

Against the order passed by the Assessing Officer under section 147/143(3) of the Act, an appeal was filed by the assessee before the ld. CIT(Appeals) and since there was no satisfactory compliance on the part of the assessee to the notices issued by him fixing the said appeal for hearing from time to time, the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal of the assessee for non-prosecution vide his appellate order dated 12.03.2019 passed ex-parte. Aggrieved by the order of the ld. CIT(Appeals), the assessee has preferred this appeal before the Tribunal.

At the time of hearing before the Tribunal fixed today, none has appeared on behalf of the assessee nor any application seeking adjournment has been filed. This appeal of the assessee is, therefore, being disposed of ex-parte after considering the arguments of the ld. D.R. and the relevant material available on record. It is observed that even though the appeal of the assessee was stated to be fixed for hearing by the ld. CIT(Appeals) on 29.01.2019, 01.03.2019 and 11.03.2019, there is nothing mentioned in the impugned order of the ld. CIT(Appeals) as to how the notices on the said hearing were sent to the assessee. Moreover, the ld. CIT(Appeals) as per the provisions of sub-section (6) of section Assessment Year: 2009-2010 M/s. Attractive Financial Advisory Pvt. Limited 250 was required to dispose of the appeal of the assessee vide order in writing stating the points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision. It is observed that the impugned order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) does not comply with these requirements. I, therefore, set aside the impugned order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) ex-parte and remit the matter back to him for disposing of the appeal of the assessee afresh on merit in accordance with law after giving proper and sufficient opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

In the result, the appeal of the assessee is treated as allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on October 24, 2019.