Income Tax Notice  Issued On Address  in Income Tax Portal instead of Address in ITR: Kerala HC Allows writ petition [Read Order]

In a recent case, the Kerala High Court while allowing the writ petition challenging the issue of Income Tax notice to wrong address directed the assessee to update the current address to the Income Tax portal. The court found that the show cause notice under the Income Tax Act, 1961 was issued on address shown in Income Tax portal while the assessee’s actual address was the address mentioned in the Income Tax Return(ITR)

Janardhanan Pillai, the petitioner through its advocate A.Jani(Kollam) has approached the Court challenging  proceedings under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.  An assessment order passed along with imposing penalty on the petitioner. The petitioner stated that in the said orders, the address of the petitioner were shown as “E-1/7MUSCO STAFF COLONY, JAGADISH NAGAR PO KHOPOLI, RAIGAD 410216, Maharashtra, India”. It is submitted that the petitioner had been working in Raigad earlier and had shifted his residence to Kottarakkara nearly twenty years ago.

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The Senior Standing Counsel appearing for the Income Tax Department would submitted that since the order were issued by the National Faceless Assessment Centre, the notices would have been issued to the petitioner at his registered email ID as given in the portal and the petitioner cannot complain that the orders are issued in violation of natural justice on account of the fact that the address mentioned in the address of the petitioner at Raigad, Maharashtra.

A single bench of Justice Gopinath P viewed that the petitioner is entitled to succeed. A reading of orders does not indicate that the notice was issued to the petitioner at his registered e-mail ID. The address of the petitioner shown in orders is the address of the petitioner at Raigad, Maharashtra. According to the petitioner, he had shifted to Kottarakkara nearly 20 years ago and all subsequent Income Tax returns etc were filed from the new address of the petitioner at Kottarakkara.

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The court set aside the orders on the short ground that they are issued in violation of principles of natural justice. The 2nd respondent is directed to complete the assessment and the proceedings for imposition of penalty afresh, after affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.

Further held that “The petitioner shall immediately update his address and e-mail ID in the portal of the Income Tax Department, within a period of ten days from the date of receipt of a certified copy of the judgment. Thereafter, the assessment and proceedings for imposition of penalty shall be completed after issuing notices at the registered e-mail ID of the petitioner and after affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. If the petitioner does not update his address and e-mail ID as directed above, he will not be entitled to the benefit of this judgment.”

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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