ITAT quashes Assessment Order passed during Covid-19 without Providing Proper Opportunity to Assesee [Read Order]

The Chennai bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has quashed the assessment order passed during the Covid -19 period without providing proper opportunity to the assessee.

The assessee Jamal Mohideen Haroon Imran Khan, filed an appeal against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) [CIT(A)], National Faceless Appeal Centre [NFAC] for the assessment year 2012-13.

The assessee filed his return of income for the assessment year 2012-13 admitting the total income of ₹.6,83,810/- and the same was processed under section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act.  Subsequently, the assessee filed another return on 20.08.2014 admitting an income of ₹.9,70,400/- under various heads.

As per the information from the Investigation Wing, Chennai, the assessee has received funds which included demand drafts deposits and also received RTGS credit from the account of Shri JMH Mohammed maintained with Axis Bank Ltd. and moreover, the assessee was involved in three property transactions.

A notice under section 148 of the Income Tax Act was issued and served on the assessee by the AO. Despite various notices issued there was no response from the assessee hence, based on the available material assessment was completed.

Aggrieved by the order, the assesee filed an appeal before the CIT(A) however CIT(A) confirmed the assessment made by the Assessing Officer since there was no response from the assessee. Thus, the assessee filed a second appeal before the tribunal.

The assessee claimed in his written response that his previous counsel, N. Devanathan, an advocate, who passed away as a result of Covid-19, had kept the appeal files and that without them he couldn’t act in any manner.

P. Sajit Kumar, counsel for the revenue, supported the decision of the lower authorities.

It was observed by the tribunal that the CIT(A) has failed to grant a proper opportunity to the assessee since the assessee was unaware about the NFAC scheme/hearing and the concerned staff, auditor and counsel who were handing all the appeal papers were passed away in the Covid 19 period and the assessee became handicapped to approach the NFAC on the hearing.

As a result, the first appellate order was overturned by the two-member bench of V. Durga Rao (judicial member) and Manoj Kumar Aggarwal (accountant member), who also directed the CIT(A) to offer the assessee one more chance to be heard.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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