AJAY PUNDIR,VILLAGE KIRSALI V. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX APPEALS, DELHI

ITA 248/DDN/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Ajay Pundir, the appellant, who contested the orders of the Commissioner of Income Tax Appeals/National Faceless Appeal Centre, New Delhi, which confirmed the assessment and penalty orders against him for the Assessment Year 2016-17. The primary contention was the ex-parte nature of the previous orders, as the assessee did not participate in the proceedings. The Tribunal, after hearing both parties, decided to set aside the impugned orders and remand the case for a fresh assessment, highlighting the procedural requirement of a fair hearing.

• Counselvise Citation: [2026] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 838074 (ITAT-DEHRADUN)
• Duration Of Justice: 2 month(s) 25 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 18-02-2026
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Partly Allowed
• Bench Allotted: DB
• Assessment Year: 2016-2017
• Appeal Filed On: 24-11-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Partly Allowed
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: A. S. RANA
• Assessee Lawyers: MANISH NEGI; ADJOURNMENT REJECTED
• Keywords: Set aside; Opportunity of being heard
• Section: 147; 144; 271(1)(c)

Judgement Text

" 1 ITA No. 248& 249/DDN/2025 Ajay Pundir Vs. CIT(A) IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL DEHRADUN BENCH, DEHRADUN BEFORE YOGESH KUMAR U.S., JUDICIAL MEMBER AND SHRI SANJAY AWASTHI, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER ITA No. 248/DDN/2025 (A.Y. 2016-17) ITA No. 249/DDN/2025 (A.Y. 2016-17) Ajay Pundir Village Kirsali, Sahastradhara Road, Kulhan, Dehradun Uttarakhand PAN: AMGPP9703P Vs Commissioner of Income Tax Appeals/National Faceless Appeal Centre , Delhi, New Delhi Appellant Respondent Assessee by Sh. Manish Negi, CA (Adjournment rejected) Revenue by Sh. A. S. Rana, Sr. DR Date of Hearing 11/02/2026 Date of Pronouncement 18/02/2026 ORDER PER YOGESH KUMAR, U.S. JM: The captioned Appeals are filed by the Assessee against the orders of Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals/ National Faceless Appeal Centre (‘Ld. CIT(A)/NFAC’ for short), New Delhi dated 27/09/2025 for the Assessment Year 2016-17, wherein the Ld. CIT(A) has dismissed the First Appeal by confirming the Assessment Order and the order of penalty respectively. 2. Brief facts of the case are that, an assessment orders came to be passed on 22/03/2022 u/s 147 r.w. Section 144 r.w. Section 1444B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ('Act' for short) by making certain additions. Printed from counselvise.com 2 ITA No. 248& 249/DDN/2025 Ajay Pundir Vs. CIT(A) Consequent to the assessment order an order of penalty also came to be passed on15/09/2022 u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act. Aggrieved by the assessment order and order of penalty, Assessee preferred two Appeals before the Ld. CIT(A) which were dismissed on 27/09/2025 vide orders impugned. As against the orders of the Ld. CIT(A) dated 27/09/2025, Assessee preferred the captioned Appeals. 3. We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. Both the order of the A.O. as well as order of the Ld. CIT(A) are ex-parte, wherein the Assessee has not participated in any of the proceedings. Even the Ld. CIT(A) has not decided all the grounds of Appeal on its merits. In view of the above, in the interest of justice, we set aside the orders impugned and remand the file of the A.O. for de-novo assessment. Since, we have set aside the assessment order, the order of penalty is also hereby deleted, however, A.O. is at liberty to initiate fresh penalty proceedings, if required after passing the de-novo assessment order. Needless to say, the A.O. shall provide opportunity of being heard to the Assessee before passing the assessment order in accordance with law. The Assessee is also directed to participate in assessment proceedings without fail. Printed from counselvise.com 3 ITA No. 248& 249/DDN/2025 Ajay Pundir Vs. CIT(A) 4. In the result, the Appeals of the Appellant are partly allowed for statistical purpose. Order pronounced in the open court on 18th February, 2026 Sd/- Sd/- (SANJAY AWASTHI) (YOGESH KUMAR U.S.) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER Date:- 18.02.2026 Reshma Naheed, Sr.P.S Copy forwarded to: 1. Appellant 2. Respondent 3. CIT 4. CIT(Appeals) 5. DR: ITAT ASSISTANT REGISTRAR ITAT, NEW DELHI Printed from counselvise.com "