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Facts
The assessee, a co-operative society, claimed exemption under Chapter VIA of the Income Tax Act. The Assessing Officer disallowed a portion of the claim. The CIT(A) dismissed the appeal ex-parte as the assessee failed to appear despite multiple opportunities. The assessee contended that notices were sent to an incorrect email ID of an ex-employee.
Held
The Tribunal found merit in the assessee's contention that notices were sent to an incorrect email ID, leading to their non-appearance. The delay in filing the appeal was condoned. The CIT(A)'s ex-parte order was set aside.
Key Issues
Whether the delay in filing the appeal should be condoned due to non-receipt of hearing notices, and whether the appeal should be heard on merits.
Sections Cited
80P(2)(d), 80P(2)(a)(i), 57, 250
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, BANGALORE “C” BENCH, BANGALORE
Hassan Co-operative Society Ltd. The Income Tax Officer #1, Society Road Ward -1 Gandhi Bazar vs. Aayakar Bhavan Hassan 573201 2nd Stage, Belur Road PAN – AAAAH7251F Hassan 573201 (Appellant) (Respondent) Assessee by: Shri Tarun Kothari, Advocate Revenue by: Shri Ganesh R. Gale, Standing Counsel Date of hearing: 20.06.2024 Date of pronouncement: 27.06.2024 O R D E R Per: Soundararajan K., J.M. This appeal is filed by the assessee challenging the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Kanpur (CIT(A))dated 28.02.2024 passed under Section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) in respect of Assessment Year (AY) 2017-18.
The assessee is a co-operative society registered under the provisions of the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act and it declared an income of Rs.9,98,941/- and claimed exemption under Chapter VIA of the Act. The Assessing Officer (AO) had disallowed a portion of the claim on the ground that the same are not from the investments made with any other co-operative societies and therefore not eligible for deduction under Section 80P(2)(d) of the Act. The assessee filed an appeal before the CIT(A) and contended that the income earned by the assessee is eligible for deduction under Section Hassan Co-operative Society Ltd. 80P(2)(a)(i) of the Act since the assessee had invested the surplus funds by way of temporary deposit in various co-operative societies. The CIT(A) decided the appeal ex-parte and dismissed the same since the assessee had not appeared before him in spite of granting five occasions as below: -
S. Notice issue date Date of compliance Response of appellant No. (though ITBA) 1 26.02.2021 15.03.2021 No written submission 2 12.12.2023 27.12.2023 filed in support of grounds of appeal. No 3 05.01.2024 12.01.2024 4 19.01.2024 25.01.2024 request of 5 19.02.2024 26.02.2024 adjournment made Against the ex-parte order of the learned CIT(A) the present appeal has been filed by the assessee on the ground that the hearing notices were sent to the email ID of the temporary employee and therefore the assessee was not able to access the email ID and hence the nonappearance of the assessee was not wilful and prayed to allow the appeal. The assessee also filed an application to condone the delay of 15 days in filing the present appeal and explained the reasons for the delay and prayed to condone the delay and hear the appeal on merits and grant necessary relief.
3. At the time of hearing the learned A.R. of the assessee pointed out that the email ID noted in Form 35 is hm.manjusagar@gmail.com whereas the email ID of the assessee is hcsl4429@gmail.com, which is now given in Form 36. The learned A.R. further contended that since the email ID was not updated in the e-portal, the assessee was not able to appear before the CIT(A). The learned A.R. further contended that the assessee is having a good case on merits since the disallowance by the ld. AO on the interest income received under Section 80P(2)(i)(a) of the Act is not correct and also made an alternate argument that the disallowance of the entire interest income without granting deduction of cost of fund under Section 57 of the Act is not in order. The ld AR further submitted that the order of the CIT(A) came to the knowledge of the assessee only when the assessee received a demand notice during the third
Hassan Co-operative Society Ltd. week of April 2024 and thereafter only the portal was opened and found the CIT(A) order. Hence there is a delay of 15 days in filing the appeal and prayed to condone the delay.
The learned D.R., on the other hand, supported the orders of the lower authorities and prayed to dismiss the appeal of the assessee.
We heard the rival contentions and perused the materials on record. We will take up the delay condonation application first. In the application the assessee submitted that the reasons for the non appearance by the assessee was that they have not received the notices since the same were sent to the mail i.d. of the ex employee. We have found that the email ID given in Form 35 is hm.manjusagar@gmail.com which belonged to the erstwhile employee and the email ID now given in Form 36 is hcsl4429@gmail.com. Therefore, the contention made by the learned A.R. that the notices and order sent by the learned CIT(A) were not received by the assessee has some force and hence the delay in filing the appeal is condoned and the appeal is taken up for hearing.
Now we will take up the order of the learned CIT(A) and found that the ld CIT(A) had confirmed the assessment order ex-parte for the reason that the assessee had not appeared before him in spite of several opportunities granted to them. The ld CIT(A) had not gone into the merits of the case. We have already considered the reasons stated by the learned A.R. and satisfied that the hearing notices were sent to the email ID of the ex-employee and, therefore, the assessee had no knowledge about the appeal hearing dates and hence not appeared before the CIT(A). In these circumstances we are inclined to grant one more opportunity to the assessee to place their case before the ld CIT(A). We therefore set aside the order of the learned CIT(A)and remit the issue to the file of the learned CIT(A) with the direction to dispose of the appeal on merits and in accordance with law after hearing the petitioner.
Hassan Co-operative Society Ltd. 7. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 27th June, 2024.