DHARAMVEER RATHORE,GUNA V. INCOME TAX OFFICER GUNA, GUNA

ITA 439/AGR/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Dharamveer Rathore, the appellant, who appealed against the order of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), which dismissed his first appeal ex parte. The dispute arose from a search and seizure operation under section 132 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, conducted on the P.N. group, which revealed incriminating documents related to unsecured loans. The Income-tax Officer reassessed Rathore's income significantly higher than declared, leading to the appeal. The CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal due to non-submission by Rathore, prompting this second appeal. The tribunal found that the CIT(Appeals) had not discussed the merits of the case, contrary to section 250(6) of the Act, and thus remitted the case back for a detailed examination.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 824449 (ITAT-AGRA)
• Duration Of Justice: 3 month(s) 13 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 29-12-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: DB
• Assessment Year: 2020-2021
• Appeal Filed On: 16-09-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income-tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Matter Remanded
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: REVENUE. INITIALLY; LEARNED FILED AN ADJOURNMENT; SHAILENDRA SRIVASTAVA
• Assessee Lawyers: RAJENDRA SHARMA
• Keywords: Document seized; Documents seized; Principle of natural justice; Search and seizure
• Section: 147; 148; 142(1); 132

Judgement Text

" IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, AGRA BENCH, AGRA BEFORE : SHRI S. RIFAUR RAHMAN, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER AND SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER ITA No. 439/Agr/2025 Assessment Year: 2020-21 Dharamveer Rathore, Shastri Market, Nayapura, Dr. S.P. Jain ke Pass, Guna, Gwalior Vs. Income-tax Officer, Guna. PAN :CWNPR9153A (Appellant) (Respondent) Assessee by Sh. Rajendra Sharma, Advocate Department by Sh. Shailendra Srivastava, Sr. DR Date of hearing 17.12.2025 Date of pronouncement 29.12.2025 ORDER PER : SUNIL KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER: This appeal has been preferred by assessee against the impugned order dated 18.07.2025 passed in Appeal No. NFAC/2019-20/10467367 by the Ld. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), NFAC, Delhi u/s. 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) for the assessment year 2020-21, wherein the ld. CIT(Appeals) has dismissed assessee’s first appeal ex parte. Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.439/Agr/2025 2 | P a g e 2. Brief facts state that the assessee filed return of income for A.Y. 2020- 21, declaring total income of Rs.6,15,630/-. A search and seizure operation u/s. 132 of the Act was carried out in the case of P.N. (Prem Nagar) group (belong to Rathore family) on 09.01.2020. During the operation, various incriminating documents regarding unsecured loan were seized. From the seized documents, it was revealed that the assessee has given unsecured loan of Rs.20 lacs to the entities related to P.N. group (Ghanshyam Rathore). It was further noticed that the cash was deposited in assessee’s bank account and immediately transferred to entities related to P.N. group (Ghanshyam Rathore) in the name of unsecured loans. Case was reopened u/s. 147 and notice u/s. 148 was issued. Statutory notices u/s. 143(2) and 142(1) of the Act along with show cause notice were issued. Assessee was required to furnish the nature of his business, books of account, bank account statement, balance sheet, profit and loss account, source of cash deposits and details of unsecured loans given by the assessee. Assessee made submissions before ld. Assessing Officer. After considering the assessee’s response, assessment proceedings were completed and assessed total income of Rs.5,80,91,518/-. 3. Assessee preferred first appeal before learned CIT(Appeals), who dismissed assessee’s appeal ex parte. Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.439/Agr/2025 3 | P a g e 4. Assessee has preferred this second appeal on the ground, in addition to others, that the impugned order has been passed in violation of the principles of natural justice without affording sufficient opportunity of hearing to the assessee. 5. Perused the records and heard learned representative for the assessee and learned DR for revenue. Initially, learned AR filed an adjournment application, which was rejected. 6. Perusal of the first appellate order shows that the assessee was issued various notices during the first appellate stage on 22.05.2025, 03.06.2025, 26.06.2025 and 02.07.2025, but the assessee did not make any submission during the first appellate stage, which compelled the ld. CIT(Appeals) to pass ex parte impugned order. Such an irresponsive conduct of the assessee is not acceptable. We, however, note that the ld. CIT(Appeals) has passed ex parte order without any discussion on merits, which is not in consonance with the spirit of section 250(6) of the Act, wherein learned CIT(Appeals) was expected to state the points for determination, decision thereon and the reasons for the decision. In such circumstances and in the interest of justice, we deem it just and proper to remit the matter back to the file of learned CIT(Appeals) for deciding the appeal afresh in accordance with law after taking assessee’s submissions into consideration. We further direct the assessee to be diligent and cooperative in attending the proceedings and making submissions before Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.439/Agr/2025 4 | P a g e the learned CIT(Appeals) for the expeditious and effective disposal. Needless to say that learned CIT(Appeals) shall ensure the observance of the principles of natural justice. The appeal is thus liable to be allowed for statistical proposes. 7. In the result, the appeal is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open court on 29.12.2025. Sd/- Sd/- (S. RIFAUR RAHMAN) (SUNIL KUMAR SINGH) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER Dated: 29.12.2025 *aks/- Copy forwarded to: 1. Appellant 2. Respondent 3. CIT 4. CIT(A) 5. DR Asst. Registrar, ITAT, Agra Printed from counselvise.com "