The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ), New Delhi, has recently, in an appeal filed before it, held that the CIT shall condone delay for want of material records regarding non service of notice and penalty order on time.
The aforesaid observation was made by the Tribunal when an appeal was filed before it by an assessee for assessment year 2008-09, against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Ghaziabad, dated 29.11.2019.
The ground of the assessee’s appeal being that the CIT(A), Ghaziabad has erred in law, on facts and in surrounding circumstances in dismissing the penalty appeal “in limine” by treating it “nonest being defective”, merely on venial technical pleas of delay in filing of appeal coupled with non- furnishing of original notice of demand, leading to miscarriage of natural justice, the opposing contention of the Revenue was that there being a delay of 12 months and the reason assigned not being satisfactory, the DR justified the order of the CIT(A).
Hearing the opposing contentions and perusing the materials available on record, the Tribunal commented:
“On perusal of the record, it is found that the Ld. CIT(A) has dismissed the appeal on the ground of delay in latches and also for non-production of the original demand notice, but it is the specific case of the assesseethat neither the notice nor the penalty order have been served on the assessee. Also the ld. CIT(A) has not brought any material on record regarding non-service of the notice and the penalty order on time to contradict the claim of the assessee.”
“In our considered opinion, by considering the facts and circumstances of the case and for the reasons assigned by the assessee for condoning the delay, the Ld.CIT(A) ought to have condoned the delay and should have decided the appeal on merits. Therefore, in the interest of justice, we are inclined to condone the delay in filing the appeal before the CIT(A) and further remand the matter to the file of Ld.CIT(A) with a direction to hear the assessee and dispose the Appeal on merit in accordance with law, all the issue on merit being kept open.”, allowing the assessee’s appeal the Bench concluded.
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