The Chennai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) dismissed appeal citing a lack of proper explanation for the 726-day delay. The appeal is time barred by 726 days. The order of the CIT(A) is dated 31.08.2021 and assessee has disclosed the date of service of the impugned order on 07.09.2021 as per form no.36.
The appellant submitted that it has no knowledge when it had received the first appellate authorities order since the family members were affected by Covid during that period, However, if the date of order is considered as the date of receipt of order the appeal should have been filed well before by 30.10.2021, however the appeal was filed on 01.11.2023 with a delay of 731 days.
Mr. D. Anand, representing the assessee stated that assessee family members were affected during covid period and lost to track the first appellate order i.e. impugned order and hence could not file the appeal within the limitation period. It was admitted that when assessee was finalizing the return of income for assessment year 2023- 2024 in the month of September, 2023, he realized that appeal was not preferred.
Hence there was a delay. Mr. D. Hema Bhupal, representing the revenue, stated that the assessee might have filed return of income for the assessment year 2022-2023 also in the month of July, August and September, 2022 and at that point of time the assessee could have filed the appeal.
A single member bench of Mahavir Singh (Vice President) found no reasonable cause as it seemed that this is a cooked story and the assessee could not file any supporting materials like medical certificate i.e. family members were affected by covid per and for how long. Even otherwise there is a long delay of 726 days which was not properly explained.
Since there was no reasonable cause, ITAT was not inclined to entertain the condonation plea and dismissed the same. Therefore, the bench dismissed the appeal of the assessee as unadmitted. Accordingly, the appeal of the assessee was dismissed as un-admitted.
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