In a recent case, the Calcutta High court allowed the Income Tax Appeal on condition of paying one lakh to Bar Association as the assessee prayed for one opportunity for hearing. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) passed order since none appeared for the assessee and the matter was dealt with on the available documents.
Klenzer Trading Private Limited, the assessee filed appeal under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) challenged the order passed by the ITAT for the assessment year 2012-13.
Mrs. Swapna Das, Counsel appearing with Mr. Siddhartha Das, Advocate for the appellant and Mr. Tilak Mitra, standing Counsel for the respondents.
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It was submitted that the assessee’s only prayer before this Court is to afford one more opportunity to go before the Tribunal and place the facts. It was submitted that adjournment petitions were filed. Nonetheless, there was no representation when the matter was taken up by the Tribunal and the non-appearance is neither willful nor deliberate and the assessee had all along been proceeding with the matter diligently and the assessee may be afforded an opportunity.
The court submitted that the conduct of the assessee was rightly taken note of by the Tribunal and since none appeared for the assessee, the matter was dealt with on the available documents and the order passed by the Tribunal may be affirmed.
Upon considering the facts of the case, the court found that the assessee’s conduct cannot be appreciated. Nonetheless, the Tribunal being the last fact finding authority, the court viewed that one more opportunity can be granted to the appellant to agitate the matter on merits before the Tribunal subject to certain conditions.
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The division bench of Chief Justice T.S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya allowed the appeal and set aside the order passed by the Tribunal subject to the conditions that the appellant pays a sum of Rs.1 Lac to the Bar Association, High Court at Calcutta, within three weeks.
“The appellant shall submit the receipt for such payment in the office of the learned Tribunal and upon production of the said receipt for payment of cost as directed above, the learned Tribunal shall take up the matter for consideration and afford one opportunity to the appellant to appear in the matter and pass fresh orders on merits and in accordance with law.”, the bench added.
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