CHANDRAMA PRASAD GUPTA,KOLKATA V. I.T.O., WARD - 1(2), KOLKATA

ITA 1920/KOL/2024

AI Insights

The case involves Chandrama Prasad Gupta, the appellant, who contested an order from the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi, which had rejected his appeal in limine due to a delay of 743 days without condoning it. The original assessment by the Income Tax Officer included a significant addition of Rs.1,51,23,450 as undisclosed receipt under section 68 of the Income Tax Act, following the assessee's failure to respond to notices. The Tribunal considered the impact of the pandemic and faceless proceedings on the assessee's ability to respond and appear, leading to the decision to remit the case back to the CIT(Appeals) for a fresh examination on merits.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 669249 (ITAT-KOLKATA)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 24-06-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: A
• Assessment Year: 2012-2013
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Condonation of delay; Principle of natural justice
• Section: 148; 144; 142(1); 68

Judgement Text

" ITA No. 1920/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2012-2013) Chandrama Prasad Gupta 1 IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, ‘A’ BENCH, KOLKATA Before Shri Duvvuru RL Reddy, Vice-President (KZ) & Shri Sanjay Awasthi, Accountant Member I.T.A. No. 1920/KOL/2024 Assessment Year: 2012-2013 Chandrama Prasad Gupta,………………..……Appellant 21, B.B. Ganguly Street, 2nd Floor, Bow Bazar, Kolkata-700012 [PAN:AEAPG0167L] -Vs.- Income Tax Officer,…………………………......Respondent Ward-1(2), Kolkata, Aayakar Bhawan, P-7, Chowringhee Square, Kolkata-700069 Appearances by: Shri Suryaneel Das, A.R., appeared on behalf of the assessee Shri Subhro Das, Addl. CIT, Sr. D.R., appeared on behalf of the Revenue Date of concluding the hearing: June 16, 2025 Date of pronouncing the order: June 24, 2025 O R D E R Per Duvvuru RL Reddy, Vice-President (KZ):- The present appeal is directed at the instance of assessee against the order of ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi dated 12th August, 2024 passed for Assessment Year 2012-13. ITA No. 1920/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2012-2013) Chandrama Prasad Gupta 2 2. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is an individual, who filed his original return of income on 31.03.2013 for the assessment year 2012-13 declaring total income of Rs.1,82,510/- . Notice under section 148 of the Act was issued to the assessee by the ld. Assessing Officer. The assessee filed his return of income on 27.04.2019. Subsequently notices under section 143(2) and 142(1) were issued to the assessee on 04.07.2019 and 16.09.2019 respectively but the assesese did not reply to the notices issued. Therefore, ld. Assessing Officer completed the assessment as best judgment assessment under section 144 of the Act by making an addition of Rs.1,51,23,450/- under section 68 as undisclosed receipt and assessed income of the assessee at Rs.1,53,05,960/-. 3. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals). 4. The contention of the ld. Counsel for the assessee is that the ld. CIT(Appeals) did not condone the delay of 743 days and rejected the appeal of the assessee in limine without going into the merit of the appeal. He further submitted that due to duration of pandemic period and also faceless proceeding of assessment, the assessee was not aware of the date of hearing before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Therefore, the assessee was not in a position to appear before the ld. CIT(Appeals). But without going into the merit of the case, the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee without condoning the delay. ITA No. 1920/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2012-2013) Chandrama Prasad Gupta 3 5. On the other hand, ld. Departmental Representative submitted that the assessee has not shown any sufficient cause. The reasons cited by the assessee are not found tenable and thus the prayer for condonation of delay filed by the appellant was not admissible. Therefore, the ld. CIT(Appeals) has no other option except dismissing the appeal and he pleaded to uphold the order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals). 6. We have heard both the sides and perused the material available on record. The ld. Counsel for the assessee filed a condonation petition mentioning the reasons for delay in filing the appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Therefore, in order to ensure the principle of natural justice, we are of the view that it is a fit case to provide one more opportunity to the assessee to substantiate his claim before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Therefore, we remit the matter back to the file of ld. CIT(Appeals) with a direction to dispose of the appeal without any inference on the observations of earlier order passed by him. Thus, the grounds raised by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes. 7. In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 24/06/2025. Sd/- Sd/- (Sanjay Awasthi) (Duvvuru RL Reddy) Accountant Member Vice-President (KZ) Kolkata, the 24th day of June, 2025 ITA No. 1920/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2012-2013) Chandrama Prasad Gupta 4 Copies to :(1) Chandrama Prasad Gupta, 21, B.B. Ganguly Street, 2nd Floor, Bow Bazar, Kolkata-700012 (2) Income Tax Officer, Ward-1(2), Kolkata, Aayakar Bhawan, P-7, Chowringhee Square, Kolkata-700069 (2) Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi; (4) CIT - ; (5) The Departmental Representative; (6) Guard File TRUE COPY By order Assistant Registrar, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata Benches, Kolkata Laha/Sr. P.S. "