M/S. DOUCEUR SPORTSWEAR MFG. CO. PVT LTD ,MUMBAI V. ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX -15(1)(2), MUMBAI

ITA 1909/MUM/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Douceur Sportwear Mfg. Co Pvt Ltd appealing against an order from the National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), which confirmed an addition of Rs. 1,54,94,367 under section 41(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, due to cessation of liability. This addition was initially made by the Assessing Officer following a fire incident that disrupted the assessee's operations, preventing them from servicing certain creditors. The assessee argued that a similar issue for the same assessment year had been previously addressed and was pending before the CIT Appeals. The Tribunal decided to remit the matter back to the CIT Appeals to consolidate the pending and current appeals for a comprehensive adjudication.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 713253 (ITAT-MUMBAI)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 31-07-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Assessment Year: 2012-2013
• Other Referred Cases: ITA 4767/MUM/2019
• Laws Referred To: Income-tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Set aside; Opportunity of being heard
• Section: 147; 144; 143(3)

Judgement Text

"IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL “D” BENCH MUMBAI BEFORE SHRI SANDEEP GOSAIN, JUDICIAL MEMBER AND SHRI GIRISH AGRAWAL, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER ITA No. 1909/MUM/2025 Assessment Year: 2012-13 Douceur Sportwear Mfg. Co Pvt Ltd. C-96, TTC Industrial Estate, Area MIDC Turbhe, Navi Mumbai-400705. (PAN: AAACD1753G) Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax-15(1)(2) Aaykar Bhavan, Mumbai-400020. (Appellant) (Respondent) Present for: Assessee : Shri Swapnil Newaskar, Advocate Revenue : Shri Annavaram Kosuri, Sr. DR Date of Hearing : 14.07.2025 Date of Pronouncement : 31.07.2025 O R D E R PER GIRISH AGRAWAL, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER: This appeal filed by the assessee is against the order of National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi, vide order no. ITBA/NFAC/S/250/2024-2025/1073065328(1) dated 10.02.2025, passed against assessment order u/s. 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”), by ACIT-15(1)(2), Mumbai dated 17.03.2015 for Assessment Year 2012-13. 2. Grounds taken by the Assessee are reproduced as under: “1. The same issue as raised in present assessment and CIT (A) was raised for same assessment year 2012-13 against which appropriate proceeding is filed Printed from counselvise.com 2 ITA No. 1909/Mum/2025 M/s. Douceur Sportwear MFG. Co. Pvt. Ltd. A.Y. 2012-13 by the previous Chartered accountant of the assesses. The said proceeding is culminated to the ITA 4767/MUM/2019 and finally decided on 25/05/2021 by this Hon'ble Tribunal. 2. Vide order dated 25/05/2021 in ITA 4767/MUM/2019, this hon'ble tribunal has remanded back the same matter to Assessing officer for Verification denono. 3. That as per the order of this Hon'ble tribunal, the Fresh Assessment order is passed dated 28/03/2023 under section 144 r.w. 254, r.w. 144B of the Income Tax act by the assessing officer. 4. That the sais fresh assessment order dated 28/03/2023 is already challenged by Assessee vide Form 35 and said appeal is pending before CIT Appeals 5. The impugned CIT Appeal is repetition of the same assessment and mistakenly filed. In above circumstances the proceeding and order passed by CIT appeal may please be set aside.” 3. Brief facts of the case are that present appeal is against assessment completed u/s. 143(3) dated 17.03.2015, wherein an addition of Rs. 1,54,94,367/- is made against cessation of liability u/s. 41(1). Assessee was asked to provide justification in respect of the outstanding amounts against certain creditors for which assessee furnished that on account of fire which occurred in the factory of the assessee, its entire operation came to stand still. Assessee was not able to service these creditors and therefore remained unpaid. Ld. AO took note of these submissions so made and noted that “act of God” had hampered the operations of the assessee and its capacity to service the creditors. He further noted that there cannot be any exceptions which can be granted to the assessee and thus invoked provisions of section 41(1) to make the addition. Ld. CIT(A) confirmed the said addition and dismissed the appeal of the assessee against which assessee has come up before the Tribunal. 4. Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that similar issues have been dealt for the same assessment year on the same issue when the reassessment was done u/s. 147 r.w.s 143(3). The said reassessment order was contested by the assessee and reached before the Tribunal in ITA No. 4767/M/2019 for which the order was pronounced on Printed from counselvise.com 3 ITA No. 1909/Mum/2025 M/s. Douceur Sportwear MFG. Co. Pvt. Ltd. A.Y. 2012-13 25.05.2021 by the co-ordinate bench of ITAT Mumbai, restoring the matter back to the file of Ld. AO for denovo adjudication. Pursuant to this restoration, Ld. AO passed an order u/s. 144 r.w.s. 254 dated 28.03.2023 wherein the addition was repeated. Assessee contested the same by filing the appeal before the Ld. CIT(A) which is pending as on date. On these set of facts Ld. Counsel submitted that there is a repetition of the addition for the same assessment year, one against the assessment made u/s. 143(3) i.e the present case and the other against the reassessment completed u/s. 147 r/w 254 for which the matter is pending before the Ld. CIT(A). 5. Considering the peculiar fact of this case, we find it appropriate to remit the matter before us, back to the file of Ld. CIT(A) so that both the appeals as stated above are taken up for adjudication together. Needless to say that assessee be given reasonable opportunity of being heard and to make the submissions substantiating the claim so made. Accordingly, grounds raised by the assessee are allowed for the statistical purposes. 6. In the result, appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order is pronounced in the open court on 31 July, 2025 Sd/- Sd/- (Sandeep Gosain) (Girish Agrawal) Judicial Member Accountant Member Dated: 31 July, 2025 Anandi.Nambi, Steno. Copy to : Printed from counselvise.com 4 ITA No. 1909/Mum/2025 M/s. Douceur Sportwear MFG. Co. Pvt. Ltd. A.Y. 2012-13 1 The Appellant 2 The Respondent 3 DR, ITAT, Mumbai 4 5 Guard File CIT BY ORDER, (Dy./Asstt.Registrar) ITAT, Mumbai Printed from counselvise.com "