CHELARAM BALWANI,RATHI BUILDING KE PASS vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX (APPEALS), DELHI

The assessee has filed appeal against the order of the Learned Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)/National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi [“Ld. CIT(A)”, for short] dated 10.01.2024 for the Assessment Year 2013-14.

At the time of hearing, ld. AR of the assessee brought to our notice that there is a delay of 395 days in filing the appeal before the Tribunal on the ground that the order was communicated via portal and the registered mail id i.e. 71nkkhare@gmail.com on the Income tax portal does not belong to the assessee, it might have been of erstwhile consultant who never informed the matter of ongoing proceedings status to the assessee, hence appeal against the dismissal of appeal before the ld. CIT (A) could not be filed in time and the same came to the knowledge of the assessee only after initiation of recovery proceedings. It is also submitted that the delay is neither intentional nor deliberate and accordingly requested to condone the delay.

On the other hand, ld. DR of the Revenue objected to the same and submitted that the delay should not be condoned.

Considered the rival submissions and the application for condonation of delay. After going through the application for condonation of delay, we observe that there was a reasonable cause in filing the appeal belatedly and accordingly, we are inclined to condone the delay.

At the outset, it was submitted by the ld. AR for the assessee that Assessing Officer has passed the assessment order under section 147 r.w.s. 144 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short ‘the Act’) without giving proper opportunity to the assessee and Ld. CIT(A) affirmed the action of the AO. Accordingly, he prayed that the matter may be restored back to the Assessing Officer to decide afresh. Ld. DR relied upon the order of the authorities below.

Considered the rival submissions and perused the material on record. Upon careful consideration, we are of the considered view that in the interest of justice, the matter requires denovo assessment. Therefore, we remit back the issues to the file of the Assessing Officer with the direction to decide the same afresh, after giving adequate opportunity of being heard to the assessee, for which Ld. DR has no objection. Assessee is directed to fully cooperate with the AO during the proceedings. We hold and direct accordingly.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open court on this 28th day of October, 2025.