The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) set aside the assessment order passed violating the principles of natural justice.
The Assessee, Satish has raised multiple grounds and has inter alia submitted that the order passed by the Assessing Officer (AO) under Section 147 of the Income Tax Act is bad in law because the assessment order was passed without giving an opportunity to the Assessee.
The matter was called for hearing, and the counsel for the assessee at the outset adverted to the notice dated 31.10.2019 for the Assessment Year 2012-13 in question and pointed out that as per the notice, the date of hearing was fixed for 14th November 2019 at 11.30 a.m. However, the assessment order was passed on 11.11.2019 without waiting for the response to the notice under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act.
The counsel further submitted that a serious prejudice has been caused by the Assessing Officer (AO) in passing the order without allowing the assessee to avail the time mentioned in the statutory notice under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act.
Subsequently, the counsel further asserted that there exist several additional legal and factual grounds to challenge the actions taken by the lower authorities.
The two-bench member consisting of Chandra Mohan Garg (Judicial member) and Pradip Kumar Kedia (Accountant member) held that the merit in the preliminary contention of the assessee towards lack of opportunity to be heard in the light of the date mentioned in the notice issued under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act.
The assessment order has preceded the appointed date for response under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act. Glaringly, it is not permissible.
Therefore, solely based on this aspect, the order issued by the Assessing Officer was invalidated, and the matter was returned to the designated Assessing Officer’s file for the reassessment. The assessee had to be provided with a fair opportunity to present its case and defend its position on all legal and factual matters involved.
The Assessing Officer shall pass a fresh order in accordance with the law after giving a reasonable opportunity in this regard. Therefore, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
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