Matter restored back to AO on ground of principal of natural justice- Siddhi Gupta vs. ITO

The assessee is an individual, who earns income from trading of food grains. During the course of demonetization, the assessee deposited Rs.12,44,000/- as cash into his bank account. Since the assessee had not file the return of income, notice under section 142(1) was issued in respect of cash deposit in Bank. But the assessee failed to file the return within stipulated time but on a later date.

The assessee was issued notice under section 142(1) alongwith questionnaire but the assessee did not respond to the notice. Due to non-compliance by the assessee, the ld. Assessing Officer has left with no alternative but to assess the income of assessee on the basis of information/data available on the records and the assessment was completed under section 143(3)/147. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred appeals before the ld. CIT(Appeals).

The ld. CIT(Appeals) has given several opportunities to the assesese to substantiate his claim, but the appellant did not file the written submissions and did not represent the case before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Thereafter the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeals.

Submissions of A/R of Assessee

That ld. CIT(Appeals) did not consider the case on merit, rather he just upheld the order passed by the ld. Assessing Officer. Therefore, he pleaded to delete the additions made by the ld. Assessing Officer as confirmed by the ld. CIT(Appeals).

Verdict of the Tribunal

Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we are inclined to set aside the orders passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) in order to meet the principle of natural justice, and remit the matter back to the file of ld. CIT(Appeals) with a direction to provide one more opportunity of being heard to the assessee. We also hereby caution the assessee to promptly co-operate with the proceedings before the Ld. CIT(Appeals) failing which the Ld. CIT(Appeals) shall be at liberty to pass appropriate order in accordance with law and merits.

Disclaimer: 

The above article is based upon the ruling of the Hon'ble ITAT and is meant for educational purposes only. Readers are requested to act diligently and under consultation with a professional before applying the information contained in this article. For any support, mail at: support@taxwink.com