The Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) imposed a cost of Rs.5000/- on the assessee for non-compliance with the notices issued by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) [CIT(A)].
The counsel of the assessee submitted that the CIT(A) has passed the order ex-parte qua the assessee without taking into consideration the submission of the assessee. It was stated that all the notices except the notice dated 06.02.2023 were issued in the COVID period and therefore could not be complied with.
It was further submitted that despite there being a reasonable cause for not complying before the CIT(A), the order of the CIT(A) might be set aside and issues in dispute may restored back to the file of CIT(A) for deciding afresh taking into consideration submission of the assessee.
The Departmental Representative objected and submitted that the first three dates of notices were before the COVID period and for those dates, no reasonable cause has been demonstrated by the assessee for non-compliance of the notices.
The Two-member bench comprising of Om Prakash Kant (Accountant member) and Sandeep Singh Karhail (Judicial member) held that as the assessee has not complied before the CIT(A) on all three dates without any reasonable and sufficient cause and due to non-compliance behaviour of the assessee, energy and time of the Income-tax authority has been wasted, which could have been used for justice delivery in other cases.
Therefore, the bench imposed a cost of Rs.5000/- which the assessee shall pay into the Prime Minister Relief Fund, within 30 days of receipt of this order. Subject to the payment of the cost by the assessee, the order of the CIT(a) is set aside and the matter is restored back to him for deciding afresh after taking into consideration the submission of the assessee. Thus, the appeal of the assessee was allowed.
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