SAI REFINERY,PARWANOO vs. DCIT, PARWANOO

This is assessee's appeal for assessment year 2015-16 against the order dated 11.07.2023 passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) NFAC, Delhi. The following grounds have been taken :

That the Ld. AO grossly erred in law in disallowing Interest on late deposit on Custom Duty of Rs. 18,013/- despite the settled legal propositions that the same being not in the nature of penalty, it is not covered by the provisions of Explanation to Section 37(1) of the Act.

That the Ld. CIT(A) grossly erred in law as well as on facts of the case in upholding ad-hoc disallowance of 10% of travelling expenses despite the fact that the Ld. AO has not enumerated any specific incidence of personal use or non production of evidences.

On scrutiny, it is found that there is a delay of 72 days, as pointed out by the Registry, in filing the appeal before this Tribunal. The assessee has filed an application for condonation of delay explaining the reasons for the delay occurred in filing the present appeal. The assessee has stated that all the notices issued by the Income Tax Department were served on email id umastrips@gmail.com , which pertained to the retired Partner Shri Vineet Gupta, who did not inform the assessee about service of any notice or orders from the Income Tax Department. It is contended that Shri Neeraj Mangla, C.A., the new Counsel, appointed by the ITA 707/CHD/2023 A.Y.2015-16 3 assessee, after verification of e-filing Portal, intimated the assessee about the ex-parte order passed by the ld. CIT(A). It is further contended that due to differences between the partners and initiation of legal disputes etc., there was delay in filing the present appeal, by the assessee before the ITAT.

Heard. After taking into consideration the contents of the application and the affidavit of the assessee, we are satisfied that the assessee was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time. Even otherwise, the assessee cannot be said to stand to gain anything by deliberately delaying the filing of the appeal before this Tribunal.

We have heard the parties and have perused the material on record. After considering the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice, we deem it appropriate to restore the appeal to the file of ld. CIT(A) to decide the matter afresh in accordance with law after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. The assessee, no doubt, shall cooperate in the fresh proceedings before the CIT(A).

The appeal of the assessee is treated as allowed for statistical purposes.