ITAT Imposes Cost Of Rs. 51K For Condoning 33 Days Delay In Filing Appeal

The Mumbai Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has imposed a cost of Rs. 51,000 for the 33-day delay in filing the appeal.

The bench of Narendra Kumar Choudhry (Judicial Member) and Gagan Goyal (Accountant Member) has set aside the ex-parte order passed by the Commissioner, consequently remanding the case to the file of the Commissioner or decision on merit, but subject to a deposit of Rs. 51,000 in the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) within 30 days.

The appellant/assessee is against the orders passed by the Commissioner of Income-tax under Section 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the year 2012–13. The Commissioner upheld the assessment order passed under Section 144, read with Section 147, as well as the penalty order passed under Section 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act.

The assessment order under Section 144 read with Section 147 was passed, against which the assessee preferred its appeal by e-filing on December 21, 2022. However, in spite of affording various opportunities to be heard by the Commissioner, neither appeared nor substantiated the delay of approximately 33 months in filing the appeal before the Commissioner.

Therefore, the Commissioner, in the constrained circumstances and in the absence of substantive material and reasonable cause, which the assessee has failed to establish, dismissed the appeal of the assessee in limine on the point of limitation.

The assessee contended that its director, Jacob Sporon Fielder, who was mainly operating the business of the assessee company, was in fact detained by the police in the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom from March 2018 to October 2021. On the expiry of his detention in the United Kingdom, he returned to India, somewhere in the month of October 2021, and after returning, he realized that there had been proceedings initiated by the department against the assessee, which resulted in the passing of an ex-parte assessment against which an appeal was filed. However, it was not entertaining. Therefore, the assessee, in order to regularize the appeal filed manually, filed an appeal online in the income-tax portal along with an application for condonation of delay in filing the appeal online.

“We have already set aside the order passed by the Ld. Commissioner in quantum appeal and remanded the case to the file of the Commissioner for decision afresh; hence, the impugned order, in this case, is also set aside, and the case is remanded in the same terms to the file of the Commissioner but subject to a deposit of Rs. 51,000 in the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) within 30 days of receipt of this order. Suffice to say, the Ld. CIT(A) shall afford reasonable opportunity to the assessee, and in case of further default, the assessee shall not be entitled to any leniency,” the tribunal said.

Counsel For Appellant: Devendra Jain

Counsel For Respondent: Harshad S. Vengurkar

Case Title: General Lifescience Distributors Versus CIT

Case No.: I.T.A. No.2422 & 2423/Mum/2023

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