CIT(EXEMPTIONS), Kolkata V. Tata Medical Centre Trust, Kolkata

MA 38/KOL/2022

AI Insights

The case revolves around a dispute concerning the procedural compliance of the Income Tax Department in issuing a revisionary order under section 263 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, against Tata Medical Centre Trust for the assessment year 2016-17. The Revenue's application for rectification was based on the claim that a DIN was generated and communicated to the assessee, contrary to the Tribunal's earlier finding of non-compliance with the CBDT Circular No. 19/2019, which mandates the inclusion of a DIN in the body of the communication for audit trail purposes. The Tribunal examined the submissions and evidence presented by both parties, including affidavits and IT portal screenshots, and concluded that the Revenue failed to substantiate its claims, leading to the dismissal of the application.

• Counselvise Citation: [2023] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 136103 (ITAT-KOLKATA)
• Duration Of Justice: 6 month(s) 13 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Miscellaneous Application
• Pronouncement Date: 04-04-2023
• Appeal Filed By: Department
• Order Result: Dismissed
• Bench Allotted: B
• Next Hearing Date: 19-01-2023
• Assessment Year: 2016-2017
• Appeal Filed On: 21-09-2022
• Other Referred Cases: Suman Jeet Agarwal v. ITO [2022] 143 taxmann.com 11 (Del)
• Laws Referred To: Income-tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Revision of order
• Section: 263; 254(2)

Judgement Text

। आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण Ɋायपीठ, कोलकाता । IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL “B” BENCH, KOLKATA BEFORE SHRI SANJAY GARG, HON’BLE JUDICIAL MEMBER & SHRI GIRISH AGRAWAL, HON’BLE ACCOUNTANT MEMBER M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Kolkata Vs. Tata Medical Centre Trust Plot No. DH7 DH8 14, Major Arterial Road (EW) Action Area I West Bengal – 700156 (PAN: AABTT2222Q) (Appellant) (Respondent) Assessee by : Shri Akshay Ringasia, C.A. & Shri Tarak Nath Jaiswal, Advocate Revenue by : Shri Vijay Kumar, Addl. CIT सुनवाई की तारीख/Date of Hearing : 20/01/2023 घोषणा की तारीख/Date of Pronouncement : 05/04/2023 O R D E R PER GIRISH AGRAWAL, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER: This miscellaneous application filed by the Revenue is arising out of the order dated 18.07.2022 of the Coordinate Bench in ITA No. 238/Kol/2021 by which an appeal was filed by the assessee against the revisionary order passed under section 263 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’), for AY 2016-17. 2. Revenue has sought to rectify the aforesaid ITAT order by stating as under: “The Hon’ble ITAT, has passed the aforesaid order in favour of the assessee by adjudicating that no DIN No. in the body of the revisionary order u/s 263 passed 2 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust by the Ld. C.I.T.(E) Kolkata. However, the DIN Number ITBA/REV/S/91/2020-21/1032080493(1)) has been generated on 3103/2021 while passing the order.” 2. In this respect Ld. Senior DR made a submission dated 23.11.2022 containing reply dated 21.11.2022 received from the office of Ld. CIT(Exemption), Kolkata. In this reply, Ld. CIT(Exemption) made a submission to clarify that the impugned order under section 263 of the Act was passed manually on 31.03.2021 which was duly issued to the assessee through system vide DIN: ITBA/REV/M/REV5/2020-21/9241(1) which was communicated to the assessee vide intimation letter DIN: ITBA/REV/S/91/2020- 21/1032080493(1) Dated 31.03.2021. It is further stated that any communication including orders/notices when generated manually are to be uploaded in the system through manual order upload functionality available in the system. In such process of manual order upload functionality, a DIN is generated and such manual order is communicated to the concerned assessee automatically through registered email along with a DIN intimation letter. According to the Ld. CIT(Exemption), intimation letter for order under section 263 issued in this case is part of the original manual order passed under section 263 of the Act dated 31.03.2021 as it mentions all the details of the order and its identification and thus cannot be in any way construed or treated as separate from the order passed under section 263 of the Act. Thus, requirements of circular number 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 issued by CBDT are fulfilled. 3. Per contra, Ld. Counsel for the assessee placed on record a written submission filed on 02.01 2023. Ld. Counsel stated that revenue has simply 3 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust referred to the DIN without justifying as to how the non-compliance of CBDT Circular No. 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 noted by the Hon’ble Bench in para 12 and 12.2 of the impugned order, is cured. The relevant extracts referred by the ld. Counsel from para 12 and 12.2. are reproduced below: “12. To ensure audit trail, DIN should be duly quoted in the body of communication. In case of exception, written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income-tax for issue of said manual communication in the prescribed format needs to be obtained. 12.2. In the present case, no such fact of issuing the present order manually without a DIN by obtaining approval from prescribed authority in the prescribed format is mentioned/quoted in the body of the impugned order and, therefore, even if the case records are verified, it will not serve any purpose since the impugned order itself does not contain any such factual notation as contemplated in para 3 of the CBDT circular.” 4. Ld. Counsel, stated that it is undisputed and verifiable fact, duly acknowledged by the Revenue that the impugned order under section 263 is passed manually and its body does not contain DIN nor any notation in the prescribed format that it is issued manually without quoting DIN by obtaining prior approval of Chief Commissioner/Director General. 5. According to the Ld. Counsel, claim of the Revenue that the impugned order under section 263 was served along with DIN to the assessee trust does not satisfy the compliance requirement of the CBDT circular. He submitted that 4 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust assessee was never served upon with the final order or the DIN. In this respect he placed on record an affidavit of the Chief Financial Officer of the assessee trust whose email ID had been registered on the IT portal for all communications. The contents of the affidavit are reproduced as under: “Affidavit in respect of service of notice for hearing under 263 and the final order. 1. I, Sanjeev Kumar Agarwal, aged about 40 years, son of Late Shri Sajjan Kumar Agarwal identified by PAN AGYPA8783G at present residing at Address Purti Flowers, Block-Lavender, Flat-3A, Budge Budge Trunk Road, Kolkata-700141 do solemnly affirm and state on oath as under: 2. That I am the Chief Financial Officer of Tata Medical Centre Trust (PAN: AABTT2222Q) and have held the said post since 17 th September 2012. 3. That I received an SMS from the Income Tax Department on 27.03.2021 on my mobile phone with respect to issuance of a notice against PAN AABTT2222Q which belongs to Tata Medical Centre Trust. 4. That on enquiry with our consultant, M/s S. Poddar & Co., they found out on the portal that a notice of hearing under 263 was issued for AY 2016-17 and we had to reply by 11:00 AM on 30.03.2021 5. That similarly final order under 263 for the said AY was never received by us either physically or through email and was downloaded by us on our own accord from the income tax portal.” 6. Further, Ld. Counsel furnished screenshots from the IT portal to demonstrate that “Closure order” as available on the IT portal contained only the impugned manual order under section 263 without DIN intimation letter. The screenshots are also reproduced below: 5 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust “ 6 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust 7. Bench raised a query to the ld. Senior DR to demonstrate the fact of email of DIN intimation letter as claimed by the ld. CIT(Exemption) in his reply. To this effect, nothing corroborative was placed on record except of a general statement that it must have gone to the registered email ID of the assessee. On this, in addition to the affidavit referred above, ld. Counsel also referred to the template extracted from ITBA screen which contains complete details of the time at which the email was sent, time at which the email was delivered, etc. evidencing that the date and time when the email was sent by the ITBA server is available with the Department. This was referred by the ld. Counsel from the judgment of Hon’ble Delhi High Court in the case of Suman Jeet Agarwal v. ITO [2022] 143 taxmann.com 11 (Del) which dealt with the issue of functioning of ITBA. These templates are also reproduced for ease of reference: Register Details □ Despa tch No Date of issue PAN/T AN Addressee Name Subject Comm. Ref. No. View Documents Mode of Despatch Date of Despa tch Date of Service Status □ 31. 03. 2021 AHIPG 3000F ANAND GOEL Notice u/s 148 ITBA/AST /S/148/202 0 -21/1032 11/6278 (1) Attachments Email Email Delivere d Sent Email (?) Email Delivery Status Email Sent On Email Delivered On Shared with e - Proceeding on Email Details Delivered 01/04/2021 05:29:41 AM 01/04/2021 05:29:45 AM 03/04/2021 04:01:39 AM 8. On a specific query by the Bench to the ld. Senior DR to point out how a DIN intimation letter along with the manual order as explained by ld. CIT(Exemption) in his reply fulfils the categorical requirement mandated by CBDT circular in its para 2 that the body of the communication (order u/s 263 in the present case) must contain the fact that the communication is issued 7 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust manually without a DIN and the date of obtaining of the written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income-tax for issue of manual communication in the prescribed format, nothing was placed to substantiate the same. 9. Revenue has sought to rectify the order by submitting in its miscellaneous application that “the DIN Number ITBA/REV/S/91/2020- 21/1032080493(1)) has been generated on 3103/2021 while passing the order”. We understand that powers under section 254(2) of the Act are limited only to rectify/correct any mistake apparent from the records. We do not find any mistake apparent from record in the order passed by the Bench, more particularly when nothing could be brought on record by the Revenue on specific queries made by the bench in reference to compliance requirements mandated by the CBDT circular no. 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019. Accordingly, miscellaneous application by the Revenue is dismissed. 10. In the result, miscellaneous application of the revenue is dismissed. Order pronounced in the open court on 05.04.2023. Sd/- Sd/- (SANJAY GARG) (GIRISH AGRAWAL) JUDICIAL MEMBER ACCOUNTANT MEMBER Kolkata, Dated: 05.04.2023 SC. Sr. P.S. 8 M.A. No. 38/Kol/2022 I.T.A. No. 238/Kol/2021 Assessment Years: 2016-17 Tata Medical Centre Trust Copy to: 1. The Appellant: 2. Respondent : 3. The CIT(A)- Kolkata 4. The CIT , Kolkata. 5. The DR ITAT, Kolkata. //True Copy// By Order Assistant Registrar ITAT, Kolkata Benches, Kolkata