Income Tax Notice Intimated Automatically through Email and SMS: Kerala HC dismisses Writ Petition [Read Order]
Kerala HC – Income Tax Notice – Email – SMS – taxscan
Kerala HC – Income Tax Notice – Email – SMS – taxscan
The Kerala High Court dismissed the writ petition alleging that the notice under the Income Tax Act, 1961 was not received by the petitioner as the intimation was automated through email and SMS registered in the portal.
Ms Nikitha Susan Paulson appeared for the petitioner, and Sri P R Ajithkumar, Standing Counsel appeared for the Income Tax Department.
The petitioner, A E Varghese S challenged the order passed under Section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ('Act') by the first respondent in an appeal filed against the assessment order under Section 143(3) of the Act. The counsel for the petitioner vehemently argued that even though the petitioner had given the postal address of his counsel, It appeared that neither his counsel nor the petitioner received notice of hearing of the appeal.
During the assessment, it was observed that the petitioner had a cash deposit of Rs.1,24,25,000/in the savings bank accounts with the ICICI Bank(Rs.1,15,25,000/-) and Canara Bank (Rs.9,00,000/-). Since the petitioner/assessee failed to prove the source for Rs.53,03,000/-, the said amount was added as income of the petitioner/assessee. The petitioner filed an appeal. The E-mail address of the Chartered Accountant of the petitioner and phone number of the petitioner were given, which are available/reflected in the portal.
It was submitted that the petitioner did not receive an intimation regarding hearing of the appeal is liable to be rejected, since under the system followed, every notice is not only uploaded in the portal but also sent by the Department through the e-mail address given by the assessee with real-time SMS alert in the mobile number provided by the assessee. These are automated systems without any humanitarian efforts.
A single bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh viewed the submission of counsel for petitioner that the petitioner did not receive intimation/notice regarding hearing of the appeal is not valid.
The Court dismissed the writ petition by stating that “it is open to the petitioner to take recourse to the remedy available under the statute before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal against the impugned appellate order. If the petitioner files an appeal before the ITAT within three weeks, the ITAT shall consider the appeal and take a decision expeditiously, by law, without going into the question of limitation.”
To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE
Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
