Delay in filing of Appeal should fall under Reasonable Cause: ITAT [Read Order]

The Chennai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) held that the delay in filing of the appeal should come under the reasonable cause.

The counsel submitted that the appeal had been filed with a delay of 1161 days, for which, a petition for condonation of delay in filing of the appeal along with an Affidavit explaining the reasons for such delay has been filed. The reason for the delay in filing of the appeal is due to reasons beyond the control of the assessee, because, she was residing with her son in Pune and came back to Chennai.

The Departmental Representative submitted that the reasons given by the assessee are vague and unreasonable, which is evident from the fact that the assessee had filed an e-return for the impugned assessment year and also represented her case before the Assessing Officer (AO) and the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) [CIT(A)].

It was submitted that due to COVID-19, she could not come to Chennai, but the fact remains that the appeal order passed in the month of September 2019, and the same was communicated to the assessee on 01.10.2019, and during that period, COVID-19 was not at all present in India. So, the claim of the assessee that she was out of station during that period, is also not acceptable for the simple reason, that the assessee was very much available in India during said period.

The Two-member bench comprising of Mahavir Singh (Vice-president) and Manjunatha. G (Accountant member) held that “the assessee had taken a casual approach in pursuing her case before the appellate authority, even though, she was aware that she needed to file the appeal as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act within the limitation period provided under the statue”.

Therefore, it was held that the reason given by the assessee for the delay in filing the appeal does not come under reasonable cause for condonation of huge delay of 1161 days, and thus, the bench rejected the petition filed by the assessee for condonation of delay and dismiss the appeal filed by the assessee as unadmitted.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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