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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, CHANDIGARH
Before: SHRI A.D.JAIN & SHRI KRINWANT SAHAY
आदेश/ORDER
PER A.D.JAIN, VICE PRESIDENT
This is assessee's appeal for assessment year 2023-24 against the order dated 16.01.2023 passed by the ld. CIT(Exemptions) Chandigarh. The following grounds have been taken :
“1. That the Ld. CIT(E) has erred in rejecting the registration u/s 12AB both on facts and law. 2. That the order for rejection of registration u/s 12AB is an ex-parte order passed in a summary manner against the facts and circumstances of the case without allowing opportunity of being heard.
ITA 742/CHD/2023 A.Y. 2023-24 2
2. There is a delay of 256 days in filing the appeal before this Tribunal. The ld. AR has filed an application for condonation of delay explaining the reasons for the delay occurred in filing the present application. The contents of the application for condonation of delay are reproduced hereunder :
That the society was having temporary registration u/s 12AB which had to be regularized on commencement of activities. The society filed application for regularization of registration u/s 12A(1)(ac)(iii) on 09.09.2022.
That the application for registration was rejected by the Ld. CIT(E), Chandigarh in an ex-party order dated 16.01.2023. The Ld.CIT(E) had also issued three notices on 07.11.2022, 09.12.2022 20.12.2022 on the registered e-mail id ccstep&thapar.edu. No physical notice was issued. There is delay of 256 days in filing the appeal. 3. The society is promoted by selected senior research scientist of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala (in short TIET) and all its members are senior research scientists who primarily work for TIET. The society was established with the aim to promote Entrepreneurship and supporting budding entrepreneurs and researchers by mentoring them to improve their technology and business viability by providing incubation at the center. The society also helps the entrepreneurs/researchers and guide them to apply for seed funding and grants from various resources tike Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, GOI, Startup Punjab, etc. The Society is disbursing the grants to startups (TIET and non-TIET) as per the merit. The same is met from the amount received from the Govt of India grant, out of which the Govt pays some management expenses to the Society. 4. As the society was formed and is comprising of only senior research scientists of TIET, who are unaware about the nitty gritty of the tax matters. The accountancy and compliance work was carried out by one accountant Mr. Rakesh Kumar Suneja, an employee of TIET who was requested to volunteer for society also, He was responsible for checking the e-mail and connect with tax advisor also. The notices and the final order dated 16.01.2023 received n e-mail; were missed or overlooked by him due to which the compliance to the .notices could not be made and appeal against the final order could be filed before Hon'ble ITAT, Chandigarh Bench, Chandigarh.
ITA 742/CHD/2023 A.Y. 2023-24 3 5. The fact that the order u/s 12A(1)(ac)(iii) was issued against the society came to their notice at the time of filing the ITR in last week of Oct, 2023 when it was enquired about the exemption status. It was only then online portal was looked into and registered e-mail was searched to find the notices and the impugned order dated 16.01,2023. Infact the order dated 16.01,2023 was received by the society on 31.10,2023 i.e. at time of filing She ITR and the time period for filing the appeal of 60 days should be counted from 31.10.2023.
6. That due to the above stated facts the society was unable to file the appeal on time or comply with the notices. The society has reasonable cause of not filing the appeal within the stipulated period.
7. A humble prayer is made to kindly condone the delay in the interest of equity and justice and hear the appeal on merits.
From the contents of the application, we are satisfied that the assessee was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time and delay was not intentional. Even otherwise, the assessee cannot be said to stand to gain anything by deliberately delaying the filing of the appeal before this Tribunal. Therefore, the delay is condoned.
At the outset, the ld. Counsel for the assessee has invited our attention to the impugned order of the ld.CIT(E) to submit that the same is an ex-parte order. He has submitted that the ld.CIT(E) has summarily rejected the application of the assessee without giving any opportunity of hearing to the assessee to present its case. He has submitted that no notice of date of hearing was served by the ld.CIT(E), either through physical mode or through e-mail
ITA 742/CHD/2023 A.Y. 2023-24 4 etc. That the notice of date of hearing was allegedly uploaded online through e-proceedings on e-filing Portal and the assessee was not aware of uploading of any such notice regarding date of hearing. That no service of notice was ever affected on the assessee.
The ld. DR could not rebut the aforesaid factual position.
We have heard the rival contentions. Merely uploading of information about the date of hearing on the Income Tax Portal is not an effective service of notice as per the provisions of Section 282 of the Income Tax Act. The matter now stands covered by the decision of the Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in the case of ‘Munjal BSU Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Ludhiana through its authorized signatory Shri Bharat Goyal Vs Commissioner of Income Tax (E), Chandigarh’, in CWP 21028-2023 (O&M), wherein, vide order dated 04.03.2024, their Lordships have held that the provisions of Section 282(1) of the Income Tax Act and Rule 127(1) of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, envisage that it is essential that before any action is taken, a communication of the notice must be in terms of these
ITA 742/CHD/2023 A.Y. 2023-24 5 provisions; that these provisions do not make mention of communication to be “deemed” by placing the notice on the e-portal of the Department; that an pragmatic view has always to be adopted in these circumstances; that an individual or a company is not expected to keep the e-portal of the Department open all the times so as to have knowledge of what the Department is supposed to be doing with regard to the submissions of forms, etc.; and that the principles of natural justice are inherent in the Income Tax provisions and the same are required to be necessarily followed.
Accordingly, in the interest of justice, the file is restored to the file of ld. CIT(E) to decide the matter afresh in accordance with law after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. The assessee, no doubt, shall cooperate in the fresh proceedings before the CIT(E).
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced on 01.07. 2024.