VIJAYARANI ALLAM,VIZIANAGARAM vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER, WARD(1), VIZIANAGARAM

At the outset, the Learned Authorised Representative (“Ld. AR”) submitted that the assessee had filed appeal before the Ld. CIT(A) against the order passed by the Learned Assessing Officer (“Ld. AO”) under section 147 r.w.s. 144 r.w.s.144B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“the Act”) dated 05.03.2024. However, the assessee could not make any compliances to the notices issued by the Ld. CIT(A). Therefore the Ld. CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee.

Feeling aggrieved with the order of Ld. CIT(A), the assessee is now in appeal before us, contending that the Ld. AO/CIT(A) did not provide sufficient opportunity to the assessee to submit the necessary explanations/evidence. It is further contended that the Ld. AO/CIT(A) passed the order without providing proper opportunity. The Ld. AR further submitted that the assessee does not stand to gain by allowing the appeal to be disposed of without any documentary evidence being produced and it is only due to the reasons beyond the control of the assessee, the assessee could not submit the necessary explanations/evidences before the Ld. AO/CIT(A). By consolidating all the grounds, he further submitted that given an opportunity, the assessee is now ready to produce all the necessary details and conduct the proceedings diligently and get the matter disposed of on merits.

Per contra, Ld. DR placed heavy reliance on the orders of the authorities below, and submitted that sufficient opportunity has already been given by the authorities, but the assessee failed to avail the same. He opposed the grant of further opportunity to the assessee.

We have heard the rival contentions and also gone through the record in the light of the submissions made on either side. It could be seen from the orders of both the revenue authorities that in spite of many opportunities given, the assessee failed to produce the necessary explanations/evidence before the Ld. AO/CIT(A), which resulted in passing the orders without consideration thereof. It is a fact that the assessee does not stand to gain by not producing such explanations/evidence. Be that as it may, now the assessee is ready to produce all the necessary explanations/evidence in support of his contentions and get the matter disposed of on merits. The highest that would happen by allowing an opportunity to the assessee is that a cause would be decided on merits. With this view of the matter, we are of the view that fresh opportunity should be given to the assessee and, accordingly, we set aside the impugned order and restore the issue to the file of the Ld. CIT(A) for passing a fresh order on merits after affording the opportunity of hearing to the assessee. Grounds of appeal are answered accordingly.

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