The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Jaipur on Thursday allowed an assessee to re-file an appeal which was supposed to be filed electronically but was instead done manually.
The Assessee, Mr. Devendra Agarwal, was imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,50,000/- under section 271B of the act. Through his authorized representative (AR) he had requested adjournment of the opportunity to hear the assessee since the AR was busy with the election of the Central Council of the ICAI. The Authority, ITO, on the other hand vehemently objected the request before the Commissioner of Income Tax (appeals), CIT(A) for adjournment on two grounds:
The CIT(A) had granted 5 opportunities of hearing to the assess but the assess kept on seeking adjournments.
The appeal was not filed in accordance with section 249 read with rule 45 of the IT Rules which requires the appeal to be filed electronically.
Considering the rival submissions CIT(A) has dismissed the appeal of the assessee ex-parte by rejecting the request for adjournment filed. Aggrieved, the assess had approached the ITAT with an appeal.
Judicial Member Vijay Pal Rao and Accountant Member Vikram Sing Yadav considered the facts of the case and rival submissions and held “Though the ld. CIT(A) granted sufficient opportunities to the assessee however, on the last occasion when the ld. AR has explained the reasons for not attending the hearing then having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case one more opportunity ought to have been granted to the assessee. As regards the maintainability of the appeal for want of e-filing, we note that the ld. CIT(A) except giving the reasons in the impugned order did not raise this defect by issuing any notice or otherwise for rectification of the same on the part of the assessee. Though there was a defect in filing of appeal as the assessee did not file electronically but filed in physical form therefore, the said defect is required to be removed by the assessee. Accordingly, in the facts and circumstances of the case as well as in the interest of justice, we set aside the impugned order of the ld. CIT(A) and remand the matter to the record of the ld. CIT(A) for adjudication of the same afresh after giving an opportunity of hearing to the assessee.”
The Assessee was directed to remove the defect and freshly e-file the appeal within a period of 30 days from the date of this order.
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