NITINCHANDRA SUBHASHCHANDRA SHAH,AHMEDABAD vs. THE DY. COMM. OF INCOME TAX, CIRCLE-3(1), VADODARA

The solitary issue in this appeal is that in spite of three hearing notices given to the assessee on 06.01.2021, 11.04.2022 and 04.05.2023, the assessee neither appeared nor sought for any adjournment which has resulted in passing the above exparte order.

Ld. Counsel Ms. Kinjal Shah appearing for the assessee brought to our notice to Form No. 35 (statutory appeal Form before Ld. CIT(A)] wherein communication e-mail address is shown as rnasso@gmail.com. Whereas the Ld. CIT(A) sent the hearing notices to e-mail address of the assessee on the ITBA Portal namely ankit10@rnasso.in and secondary e-mail id nitinshah400@gmail.com. Thus the assessee pleaded no communication were sent to the e-mail address as mentioned in Form No. 35. Thus the order passed by the Ld. CIT(A) is liable to be set aside and assessee’s prepared to argue the case on merits with supporting documents.

Ld. Sr. D.R. Shri Ashok Kumar Suthar appearing for the Revenue could not contravent the above submission of the assessee.

Taking note of the above facts on record, we also noticed in Form No. 35 that the assessee categorically stated “no” to the column “Whether notices/communication may be sent on e-mail?”. Thus in our considered view, Ld. CIT(A) has not sent physical hearing notice to the assessee. Therefore in order to meet the ends of Principle of Natural Justice, we deem it fit to set aside the matter back to the file of Ld. CIT(A), NFAC with a direction to issue the Page No 3 Nitinchandra Subhashchandra Shah vs. DCIT physical hearing notice to the assessee and decide the appeal on merits by giving proper opportunity to the assessee. Needless to say, the assessee should make use of this opportunity by producing all the required documents before Ld. CIT(A) for passing fresh appellate order on merits of the case.

In the result, the appeal filed by the Assessee is allowed for statistical purpose.