Delay in Filing Income Tax Appeal as Orders sent to Email was in Spam Folder: ITAT Condones Delay of 145 Days [Read Order]

The Cuttack Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) has condoned the delay of 145 days in filing an Income Tax appeal as the assessee failed to receive the orders sent through email, as many of these orders are going to spam folders.

Tirupati Prasad Sahu, the appellant/assessee delayed 145 days in filing an appeal before the CIT (A). The CIT(A) has also recognized that there was confusion concerning mentioning the order dates as 22.7.2022 and 22.9.2022. The delay was due to the assessee not receiving the order of the assessing officer in time.

The CIT(A) has recognized that the ITBA system shows that the order under Section 154 of the Income Tax Act is dated September 27, 2022, and was served through the e-mail of the assessee.

The assessee contended that the issue is concerning the claim of depreciation. In any case, even if the assessee does not claim the depreciation, the depreciation is liable to be allowed as per the statute itself, whether the assessee claims it or not. The department stated that the issue may be restored to the file of the CIT (A) for adjudication on merits.

The two-member bench of George Mathan ( Judicial Member ) and Manish Agarwal ( Accountant Member ) has observed, that the assessee mistakenly did not receive the orders sent through email, as many of these orders are going to spam folders. Further viewed that the explanation given by the assessee was satisfiable for condoning the delay of 145 days in filing the appeal before the CIT (A).

The tribunal restored the issue in the appeal to the file of the CIT(A) for adjudication on merits after granting the assessee adequate opportunity of being heard.

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