ITAT sets aside Income Tax Reassessment completed without Providing a Copy of the Reasons [Read Order]

The Raipur Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) sets aside income tax reassessment completed without providing copy of the reasons.
The Tribunal found that Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)[ CIT(A) ] had not considered the adjournment request of the assessee neither additional submission nor legal grounds / additional grounds assailed by the assessee.
Rajesh Kumar Tiwari, the appellant assessee filed an original return of income declaring a total income of Rs. 1,57,520/- and notice under section 148 was issued by Income Tax Assessing Officer ( AO ) against which the appellant filed a return declaring the same income as declared in the original return. The AO passed an order under Section 147 of Income Tax Act assessing the income at Rs. 1,44,48,972/- making certain additions/disallowances.
During the year under consideration, the appellant had sold a property for a consideration of Rs. 22,5000/-. The AO observed that though the appellant sold the property on 22.12.2012 and the amount of sale consideration has been received by the appellant on the same date the registration was made by the Registrar on 17.02.2014.
The AO has already passed an order of A.Y. 2014-15 under Section 147 vide order dt. 30.12.2018, making substantive addition in the hands of the appellant being value adopted by Stamp Valuation Authority on sale of this property.
The AO observed that while computing the capital gain, the appellant has shown sale consideration of Rs. 22,50,000/- instead of Rs. 1,54,19,500/- i.e. value adopted by Stamp Valuation Authority. During the assessment proceedings, the appellant specifically requested before AO to refer the matter to DVO for valuation of property but AO did not accept the submission of the appellant.
Ignoring the request of the appellant, the AO concluded that, considering the location of property, the value adopted Stamp Valuation Authority is reasonable and not disputable. He made addition of Rs. 1,31,69,500/- and recomputed the capital gain disclosed by the appellant.
The AO also disallowed deduction of Rs. 10,33,252/- being the indexed cost of improvement claimed by the appellant in respect of property sold. He made the disallowance observing that the appellant has not filed details of such expenses. The assessee filed appeals before the first appellate authority CIT(A), wherein the contention of the assessee have partly been accepted.
Authorized Representative of the assessee submitted that the assessee has challenged the validity of reassessment order before the CIT(A), but the said legal ground along with additional grounds submitted by the assessee were not adjudicated by the CIT(A).
It was argued that the AO completed the reassessment without providing copy of the reasons recorded. It is humbly submitted that when the AO reopened the assessment and when the return was filed by appellant, the AO was, on his own, required to provide copy of the reasons to the appellant, whether or not they were asked.
It was viewed that since reassessment has been completed without providing copy of reasons, as per ratio laid down in the following cases, the consequent reassessment order becomes illegal, ab initio void and is liable to be struck down
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal found that Income Tax Appeal Commissioner had not considered the adjournment request of the assessee neither additional submission nor legal grounds / additional grounds assailed by the assessee.

A two member bench of Shri Ravish Sood, JM & Shri Arun Khodpia, AM set aside the order of CIT(A) to his file for fresh adjudication and partly allowed the appeal.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE 

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