The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Chennai Bench, has recently, in an appeal filed before it, held that a huge delay of 1468 days in filing an appeal, cannot be condoned without reasonable cause.
The aforesaid observation was made by the Chennai ITAT, when three appeals were filed by the assessee, as directed against separate, but identical orders of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Chennai, all dated 27.09.2018, and pertaining to the assessment years 2009-10 to 2011-12.
It was submitted by Dr.CA. Abhishek Murali, FCA, the AR on behalf of the assessee , by referring to the affidavits filed by the assessee, that the orders of the CIT(A) were received by the assessee on 03.01.2019 and that though ordinarily, the assessee should have filed these three appeals within 60 days i.e. on or before 04.03.2019, but that , it was due to severe depression caused due to sudden death of assessee’s father and also due to his deteriorating health conditions, that the delay was caused, the assessee being advised by doctor, to take rest.
The AR for the assessee added that however, in december, 2022, with the Tax Recovery Officer having issued orders to auction ancestral the assessee’s residential house, then only had the assessee come to notice that Income Tax demand subsisted against his name.
The AR further added that the assessee had immediately taken steps to file appeals before the Tribunal in consultation with Counsel, which caused delay of 1468 days, and that the delay was neither intentional nor for wanton of any undue benefit, but beyond control of the assessee.
Thus, the AR prayed that, therefore in the interest of justice, the delay in filing of these three appeals by the assessee be kindly condoned by the Tribunal.
However, on the other hand, Mr.P.Sajit Kumar, the JCIT, on behalf of the Revenue, while strongly opposing the affidavits filed by the assessee for the condonation of delay, submitted that there is a huge delay of 1468 days in filing of these three appeals and the reasons given by the assessee for such huge delay is neither convincing nor reasonable as prescribed by the Income Tax Act for condonation of delay, and thus, the delay should not be condoned.
Hearing the opposing contentions of both sides and thereby perusing the materials available on record, the ITAT observed:
“At the outset, we find that there is a huge delay of 1468 days in the filing of these three appeals before the Tribunal, for which, the assessee has filed a petition for condonation of delay along with Affidavits explaining the reasons for such delay”.
“We have heard both the parties and considered contents of Affidavits filed by the assessee for condonation of delay. From the reasons given by the assessee in the Affidavits filed for condonation of delay, we find that the assessee has made a vague claim of medical reasons without any supporting evidences to justify his stand that he was suffering from illhealth and the Doctors advised him to take rest. No doubt, medical grounds may be good reason for condonation of delay. However, the reasons given by the assessee, including medical grounds should be supported by necessary evidences. In these cases, the Affidavits filed by the assessee by giving medical reasons is not supported by any evidences”, the ITAT Panel of Mahavir Singh, the Vice – President, and Manjunatha G, the Accountant Member added.
Thus, the ITAT finally held:
“Therefore, we are of the considered view that the reasons given by the assessee in the Affidavits for condonation of huge delay of 1468 days is neither convincing nor reasonable as provided under the Act, for condonation of delay in these appeals. Therefore, appeals filed by the assessee are dismissed for all the three assessment years.”
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