The Bangalore Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) has remitted the matter to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)[CIT(A)] after finding that hearing notices were sent via email, contrary to the assessee’s request in Form 35.
Syed Ariff, the appellant-assessee, did not file his return of income. The Assessing Officer(AO) issued a notice based on available information, and after the assessee failed to respond or file the return, issued a second notice, which led to the assessee’s objection explaining the deposits as agricultural income; the AO then completed the assessment under section 144, treating the deposits as unexplained investments and cash credits.
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The assessee filed an appeal before the National Faceless Assessment Centre (NFAC), arguing that the AO had ignored his replies and that he had requested in Form 35 not to send notices via email. Despite this, the CIT(A) sent five notices to his email, decided the appeal ex-parte, and dismissed it. The assessee then filed the present appeal before the tribunal.
The assessee contended that the CIT(A) had issued notices to the email address provided in Form 35, despite the request not to send notices via email. The assessee claimed he was unaware of these notices.
The Tribunal reviewed the submissions and materials on record, including Form 35, where the assessee had specifically requested that notices not be sent via email and noted that the CIT(A) had sent the hearing notices to the email address.
The bench found the assessee’s claim of not being aware of the hearing dates to be valid. Therefore, in the interest of justice, the Tribunal decided to grant the assessee another opportunity to appear before the CIT(A).
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The two-member bench comprising Soundararajan K (Judicial Member) and Waseem Ahmed(Accountant Member) set aside the CIT(A)’s orders and remitted the matter for a fresh decision on merits, allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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