DULAL BHATTACHARJEE,KOLKATA V. ACIT, CIRCLE 28, , KOLKATA

ITA 369/KOL/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Dulal Bhattacharjee, the appellant, who contested the order of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), which had dismissed his appeal ex parte due to non-compliance during the appellate proceedings. The original dispute arose from the assessment year 2015-16, where Bhattacharjee's income from real estate transactions was scrutinized, leading to an addition to his income under section 43CA of the Income Tax Act. The Tribunal found that the assessee had not been given a proper opportunity to represent his case before the CIT(A), leading to the decision to remand the case for a thorough examination on merits.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 361027 (ITAT-KOLKATA)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 21-05-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Partly Allowed
• Assessment Year: 2015-2016
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Partly Allowed
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Opportunity of being heard; Capital Gains
• Section: 142(1); 43CA

Judgement Text

" आयकर अपीलȣय अͬधकरण, कोलकाता पीठ, कोलकाता IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL “SMC” BENCH KOLKATA Before Shri Sonjoy Sarma, Judicial Member and Shri Rakesh Mishra, Accountant Member I.T.A. No.369/Kol/2025 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Dulal Bhattacharjee…..………………………………………...….……….Appellant C/o Subash Agarwal & Associates, Advocate Siddha Gibson, 1, Gibson Lane, Suite 213, 2nd Floor, Kolkata – 700069. [PAN: AEDPB8602E] vs. ACIT, Circle-28, Kolkata.………….....................……........……...…..…..Respondent Appearances by: Shri Siddharth Agarwal, Advocate, appeared on behalf of the assessee. Shri Kallol Mistry, JCIT, Sr. DR, appeared on behalf of the Revenue. Date of concluding the hearing : May 15, 2025 Date of pronouncing the order : May 21, 2025 ORDER Per Sonjoy Sarma, Judicial Member: This appeal of the assessee for the assessment year 2015-16 is directed against the order dated 14.01.2025 passed by the ld. Commissioner of Income-tax, Appeals, Addl/JCIT(A), Bhopal [hereinafter referred to as ‘the ‘ld. CIT(A)’]. 2. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is an individual and filed his return of income on 26.09.2015 for the assessment year 2015- 16 by declaring total income of Rs.15,84,310/-. Subsequently, the case of the assessee was selected for limited scrutiny under CASS relating to the issue of income/capital gains on sale of land or building, sale of property mismatch, sundry creditors and sales turnover mismatch. Thereafter, statutory notices u/s 142(1) and 143(2) of the Act were issued to the assessee and the ld. AR of the assessee duly complied to the notices. During the assessment proceedings, it was found that the I.T.A. No.369/Kol/2025 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Dulal Bhattacharjee 2 assessee engaged in the business of real estate development and having income from house property and bank interest. During the relevant time, the assessee had sold two number of flats against which agreement for sale for one of the flats was executed on 29.07.2011 and another was executed on 06.08.2014. The flat for which the agreement was made on 2011, the Assessing Officer estimated the value of the said flat at Rs.3643350 and the other at Rs.4300000/- as was ascertained by stamp registering authority. The entire difference amount has been treated as income from business u/s 43CA of the Act. The assessee before the Assessing Officer had produced a copy of registered deed of sale executed on April 2011 at same locality and the value was ascertained at the same value as declared in the deed of conveyance, but the same was not at all considered by the Assessing Officer and made the addition in the hands of the assessee assessing the total income of Rs.34,45,098/-. 3. Aggrieved by the above order, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(A). However, the ld. CIT(A) passed an ex parte order due to non-compliance of the assessee during the appellate proceedings on consecutives dates as fixed for hearing by the ld. CIT(A). Therefore, the appeal of the assessee was dismissed by the ld. CIT(A) sustaining the order of the Assessing Officer solely on the ground of non-compliance. 4. Dissatisfied with the above order, the assessee preferred appeal before this Tribunal raising various grounds. However, the primary contention of the ld. AR is that the impugned order of the ld. CIT(A) was an ex parte order and the assessee did not get proper opportunity to represent his case. The ld. AR prayed that another opportunity may be given to the assessee in order to substantiate the claim of the assessee before the ld. CIT(A). 5. On the other hand, the ld. DR vehemently opposed to the above prayer of the ld. AR stating that although sufficient opportunities have I.T.A. No.369/Kol/2025 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Dulal Bhattacharjee 3 been provided on various dates but the assessee did not able to turn up before the ld. CIT(A), therefore, the ld. CIT(A) rightly dismissed the appeal of the assessee without having any other alternative. 6. We, after hearing the rival submissions and perusing the materials available on record, find that in the present case, the order of the ld. CIT(A) passed ex parte without going into merits of the case by simply upholding the order of the Assessing Officer. We note that the assessee could not represent his case properly and the ld. CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee solely on the technical ground of non-compliance rather than deliberating on the merits of the case. Therefore, in the interests of justice and fair play, we deem it appropriate to remand the whole issue to the file of the ld. CIT(A) with a direction to re-examine the matter on merits after affording reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. The assessee is also directed to strictly comply with the notices which will be issued by the ld. CIT(A) as and when asked for without any fail and in case, the assessee fails to appear in remand proceedings, the ld. CIT(A) may pass a speaking order in accordance with law on the basis of materials available on record. 7. In terms of the above, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Kolkata, the 21st May, 2025. Sd/- Sd/- [Rakesh Mishra] [Sonjoy Sarma] लेखा सदèय/Accountant Member ÛयाǓयक सदèय/Judicial Member Dated: 21.05.2025. RS I.T.A. No.369/Kol/2025 Assessment Year: 2015-16 Dulal Bhattacharjee 4 Copy of the order forwarded to: 1. Appellant - 2. Respondent - 3. CIT(A)- 4. CIT- , 5. CIT(DR), //True copy// By order Assistant Registrar, Kolkata Benches "