While disposing a bunch of appeals, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Chennai bench has quashed the orders of the first appellate authorities since the assessee failed to appear during the proceedings due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The two-member bench of the Tribunal comprising of Shri V. Durga Rao, Judicial Member & Shri G. Manjunatha, Accountant Member has further directed the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)to re-adjudicate the matter after giving an opportunity to the assessee to defend the case.
The assessee contended before the Tribunal that the CIT(A) passed ex-parte order and in the interest of natural justice, he prayed that one more opportunity may be given to the assessee to substantiate his case before the ld. CIT(A).
Granting relief to the assessee, the Tribunal held that “We have heard both the sides, perused the materials available on record and gone through the orders of authorities below. On perusal of the appellate order, we find that the ld. CIT(A) has given several opportunities and the assessee could not appear before the ld. CIT(A) due to circumstances beyond his control being COVID-19 pandemic period. Hence, we are of the opinion that one more opportunity should be given to the assessee. Accordingly, we set aside the ex-parte order of the ld. CIT(A) and remit the matter back to the file of the ld. CIT(A) to decide the issue afresh in accordance with law after affording anopportunity of being heard to the assessee to substantiate his claim.”
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