ASHOK RAMCHANDRA PANSE,PUNE vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER WARD 12(1), PUNE

Briefly, the facts of the case are that the appellant is an individual, no regular return of income under the provisions of section 139(1) was filed for the A.Y. 2012-13. Based on the information that the appellant made cash deposit in savings bank account to the tune of Rs.31,70,000/- and also received contractual receipts of Rs.30,460/-, the Assessing Officer (AO) formed an opinion that income escaped assessment to income-tax. Statutory notices u/s.148/142(1) were issued to the appellant. The appellant neither complied with notice u/s.148 nor to notice u/s.142(1). In the circumstances, the Assessing Officer vide order dated 23.12.2019 was constrained to pass best judgment assessment u/s.144 r.w.s.147, bringing to tax the said sums as unexplained money u/s.69A of the Act/Income from Business or Profession” respectively.

Being aggrieved by the above additions, an appeal was filed before the CIT(A)/NFAC who vide impugned order dismissed the appeal in limine, without going into merits of the issues in appeal.

Being aggrieved, the appellant is in appeal before the Tribunal in the present appeal.

We heard the rival submissions and perused the material on record. It is an admitted position that the NFAC had dismissed the appeal of the appellant ex parte for non-prosecution. Further, it is a trite law that the NFAC should have dealt with the merits of the issue in appeal, even in the case of ex parte order. From the perusal of para 5.3 of the impugned order, it would reveal that the NFAC had not gone into the merits of the issue in appeal, merely dismissed the appeal for non- prosecution, which is contrary to the settled position of law. In this regard, reference is being made to a decision of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the case of Pr.CIT(Central) Vs. Premkumar Arjundas Luthra (HUF) Bombay)/[2017] 297 CTR 614 (Bombay) wherein it was held that CIT(A) is obliged to dispose of the appeal on merits. Therefore, we deem it proper to remit the matter to the file of CIT(A)/NFAC for de novo disposal of the issues in appeal on merit afresh after allowing reasonable opportunity to the appellant, in accordance with law. We order accordingly.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee stands partly allowed for statistical purposes.