ANANDA SARKAR,NADIA vs. ACIT, CIR. 41, NADIA

There is a delay of 128 days in filing the present appeal. A separate application for condonation of delay has been filed, which is duly supported by an affidavit of Shir Ananda Sarkar, the assessee herein. Considering the submissions made in the affidavit, the delay in filing the appeal is hereby condoned.

At the outset, the ld. counsel for the assessee has invited our attention to the impugned assessment order to submit that the same is an ex parte assessment order. The assessee in his affidavit has Assessment Year: 2017-18 Ananda Sarkar submitted that the assessee did not have access to e-proceedings of the Income Tax portal resulting into non-compliances of the statutory notices issued by the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer, therefore, made the addition of Rs.1.85 crore on account of unexplained deposits in the bank account of the assessee u/s 69A of the Act. The assessee thereafter filed appeal before the CIT(A), however, inadvertently, uploaded a different assessment order along with the appeal. That though, the assessee had duly raised cross-objection agitating the impugned addition made by the Assessing Officer and also furnished the documents, however, the ld. CIT(A) noted that the cross-objection and the submission made by the assessee and even documents furnished by the assessee did not match with the assessment order uploaded on the e-portal. The ld. counsel for the assessee has submitted that as pleaded earlier, the assessee was not much conversant with the process of e-proceedings and inadvertent mistake has happened in uploading the assessment order in the appellate proceedings before the CIT(A). That the ld. CIT(A), under the circumstances, dismissed the appeal of the assessee. The ld. counsel, therefore, has submitted that the assessee may be given an opportunity to present his case and explain the source of the bank deposits before the Assessing Officer. That the assessee will duly comply with the notices issued by the Assessing Officer.

The ld. DR, on the other hand, has relied upon the findings of the lower authorities.

Considering the rival submissions, in our view, the interests of justice will be well-served if the assessee is given an opportunity to present its case before the Assessing Officer. In view of this, the impugned order of the CIT(A) is set aside and the matter is restored to Assessment Year: 2017-18 Ananda Sarkar the file of the Assessing Officer for de novo assessment. Needless to say that the assessee will duly comply with the notices issued by the Assessing Officer and furnish the requisite details as and when called for by the Assessing Officer.

In the result, the appeal of the assessee is treated as allowed for statistical purposes.