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Before: SHRI H.S. SIDHU
Date of Hearing : 04-11-2015 Date of Order : 04-11-2015
O R D E R This appeal by the Assessee is directed against the Order of the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-22, New Delhi dated 25.2.2015 pertaining to assessment year 2005-06.
The grounds of appeal read as under:-
That the order of the Ld. CIT (A) is bad in law and is against the facts and circumstances of the case.
2. That having regards to the facts and circumstances of the case, the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in law in dismissing the ground of appeal alleging that the impugned assessment is bad in law as the same is framed without a return of income being filed in pursuance to notice uls 148 of the Act. That CIT (A) has also erred in dismissing the ground of limitation.
3. That the Ld. CIT (A) has grossly erred in not taking cognizance of additional grounds of appeal filed with him on 18-02-2015 challenging the re-opening and as such his appellate order is bad in law to that effect.
4. That having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in upholding the addition of Rs.10,50,000/- made uls 68.
5. That the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in upholding the action of AO in making the addition of Rs.31,500/- on account of commission paid.
6. That the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in upholding the action of AO in making the disallowance of Rs.50,000/- out of sundry expenses.
7. That the appellant craves the leave to add, modify, amend or delete any of the grounds of the appeal before or at the time of hearing.
The facts narrated by the revenue authorities are not disputed by both the parties, therefore, the same are not repeated here for the sake of convenience.
At the time of hearing, Ld. Counsel for the assessee stated that apart from the contention raised by the Assessee, before the AO as well as Ld. CIT(A), assessee has filed the additional grounds before the Ld. CIT(A) who passed the impugned order without considering the additional grounds raised by the assessee vide his letter dated 18.2.2015 and requested that the Ld. CIT(A) may be directed to admit the additional grounds and decide the issue afresh, under the law.
On the contrary, Ld. DR relied upon the orders of the authorities below and opposed the request of the Assessee’s counsel.
I have heard both the parties and perused the orders passed by the Revenue Authorities alongwith relevant records available especially the letter dated 18.2.2015 filed by the assessee before the ld. CIT(A) requesting therein admission of additional grounds. For the sake of convenience, the contents of the aforesaid letter dated 18.2.2015 are reproduced below:-
“18-02-2015 The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) - XXII, New Delhi.
Sub: Appeal No. 104/14-15 of Wilful Finance & Investment Co. (P) Ltd. - Asstt. Year 2005-06 - Additional Grounds of Appeal- Reg.- Sir, The assessment in the present case was completed uls 143(3)/147 on 31-3-2013. During the course of re-assessment proceedings, the assessee 3 was supplied copy of the reasons recorded for issuing notice u/s 148. As per section 147 of the Act, an assessing officer can assess or reassess the income of any assessment year, subject to other sections of the Act, if he has reasons to believe that any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for that assessment year. On perusal of the copy of the reasons recorded it is noticed that no such belief as to escapement of income has been arrived at by the AO. We had challenged the impugned assessment U/S 143(3)/147 by filing an appeal against the said order on 13-5-2013 wherein we have taken several grounds of appeal but due to inadvertence at the time of filing of the present appeal we could not take the following grounds of appeal. Now we want to take the following additional grounds, which may be read as Ground No. 7 & 8 and the ground no. 7 of appeal already filed may kindly be treated as ground no. 9:
"7. That the impugned re-opening is bad in law as the notice u/s 148 was issued without any 'reason to believe' that certain income has escaped assessment.
8. That the re-opening is void as it was solely on the basis of information received from Investigation wing & without any independent application of mind by the AO."
It is, therefore, requested that the above additional grounds of appeal may kindly be admitted as inadvertently these grounds could not be taken at the time or filing of appeal. It is also requested that while deciding the present appeal these legal grounds may also be considered along with grounds of appeal already taken because non consideration of these legal grounds would lead to total miscarriage of justice.”
7. After perusing the impugned order, I am of the considered view that the aforesaid additional grounds have not been considered by the Ld. CIT(A) in his impugned order, which is against the principle of natural justice. Therefore, in the interest of justice, the impugned order passed by the CIT(A) is quashed and all the issues in dispute including the additional grounds raised by the assessee are remitted back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) to decide the same afresh, under the law, after giving full opportunity to the assessee of being heard.
In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee stands allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open court on 04/11/2015.