The Surat bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) allowed another opportunity to the assessee for non-compliance of notice due to a different email ID on Form 35 and the Income Tax Return (ITR).
The Authorized Representative submitted that while filing an appeal in Form-35 the assessee provided the email address and Phone number of his Chartered Accountant (CA) but no notice of hearing of the appeal was served on that email. The order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) [CIT(A)] shows that notice of hearing of appeal was sent to a different email which may have been given at the time of filing the return of income. In the absence of notice, the assessee could not make compliance.
It was further submitted that before the assessing officer the assesse made certain compliance in response to various notices issued to him. Complete details of the banking transaction could not be furnished as the e-assessment procedure was introduced for the first time and the professionals were not very well equipped with the procedure.
The Authorized Representative for the assessee prayed for restoring the appeal to the file of the assessing officer instead of CIT(A) and to decide it afresh on merit, after giving an opportunity of hearing to the assessee.
The Departmental Representative submitted that the assessee should be more vigilant in making timely compliance and not seek adjournment without a valid reason. The system has issued notice to the assessee as per the data provided by the assessee and now the assessee cannot take the plea that such email, on which the notices were served does not belong to him.
The Single-member bench comprising of Pawan Singh (Judicial member) held that the CIT(A) had dismissed the appeal in ex parte order without discussing the merit of the case. The impugned order passed by CIT(A) was not in accordance with the mandate of Section 250(6) of the Income Tax Act.
Therefore, the bench restored the appeal back to the file of the Assessing Officer to pass the assessment order afresh. And the Assessing Officer was also directed to provide a reasonable opportunity to the assessee. Thus, the appeal of the assessee was allowed.
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