VARUN DAMANI,MUMBAI vs. ITO WARD 17(3)(5), FIRST FLOOR, KAUTILYA BHAVAN, BKC MUMBAI

Instant appeal of the assessee is preferred against the order of theLearned National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi [for brevity, ‘Ld.CIT(A)’] passed under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for brevity, the “Act”) date of order 16/07/2024. The impugned orderis emanated from the order of the Learned Income-tax Officer-17(3)(5), Mumbai, order passed under section 143(3) of the Act.

Varun Damani 2. The Ld.AR argued that the addition was made under different heads for disallowance under section 14A amount to Rs.4,00,061/-, interest income amount to Rs.2,28,150/-, Income from house property amount to Rs.3,83,000/-. The aggrieved assessee filed an appeal before the Ld. CIT(A). The Ld.CIT(A) issued the notice of hearing, but all the e-mails were gathered in the spam folder, so the assessee was not able to respond to the notices issued by the Ld. CIT(A) during appeal proceeding. The impugned appeal order was passed without considering the merit of the case and being aggrieved, the assessee filed an appeal before us.

We find that the assessee was not provided a reasonable opportunity to present their case before the Ld. CIT(A). Consequently, we are remanding the matter back to the file of Ld. CIT(A) for a fresh adjudication. We refrain from expressing any opinion on the merits of the case to avoid influencing the ongoing appeal proceedings. It is understood that the assessee should be afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard in the remanded proceedings. At the same time, the assessee is expected to act with due diligence and cooperate with the Ld. CIT(A) to facilitate a swift completion of the appeal.