Rejection of Appeal by CIT(A) due to No Sufficient Cause on part of Assessee for Late Filing of Appeal: ITAT Set asides Order [Read Order]

The Chennai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) quashed the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) for rejecting the appeal filed by the assessee due to mo sufficient cause on the part of the assessee for late filing of the appeal. 

Baskaran, the appellant assessee filed a return of income and the assessing officer made disallowance on the ground of non-deduction of Tax Deducted at source (TDS) and made an addition to the income of the assessee. 

Thus the assessee filed an appeal against the order passed by the assessing officer before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) of delay of 325 days in filing the appeal. The Commissioner rejected the appeal filed by the assessee. 

A. Sarangan, the counsel for the assessee contended that the assessee filed a detailed application for condonation of delay in filing the appeal before the Commissioner and explained that due to the prolonged illness of the person who was managing the entire business had been prevented from participating in the day-to-day activities of the business for a long time. 

It was further submitted that there was no intentional delay in preparing and filing the appeal before the Commissioner and the circumstances were beyond the control of the assessee and not wilful. 

P. Sajit Kumar, the counsel for the revenue relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) rejected the appeal of the assessee by not condoning the delay in filing the appeal as no sufficient cause was shown by the assessee. 

The bench observed that there was reasonable cause for the delay in filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and the delay in filing the appeal had to be condoned. 

A single-member bench comprising V Durga Rao (judicial) directed the Commissioner to condone the delay and re-adjudicate the matter on merits and quashed the impugned order while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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