MEERA SINHA,RANCHI V. ITO, WARD-2(1), RANCHI

ITA 27/RAN/2025

AI Insights

This case involves an appeal by Meera Sinha against the order passed by the ld. CIT(A), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi, for the assessment year 2017-2018. The primary contention of the appellant was the improper dismissal of her appeal by the CIT(A) without adjudicating on the merits, and the alleged lack of proper notice regarding the income tax proceedings. The appellant, a senior citizen, claimed ignorance of the proceedings due to her counsel's failure to inform her. Additionally, the appellant contested the assessment under sections 147 and 144 of the Income Tax Act, arguing that no notice under section 148 was properly served, and the assessment order was void ab-initio. The Revenue defended the actions taken by the tax authorities, asserting that proper opportunities were provided to the appellant, who failed to produce necessary documents. The Tribunal decided to remand the case back to the CIT(A) for a fresh examination.

• Counselvise Citation: [2026] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 826906 (ITAT-RANCHI)
• Duration Of Justice: 11 month(s) 9 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 05-01-2026
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: DB
• Assessment Year: 2017-2018
• Appeal Filed On: 27-01-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: RAM CHANDRA MARNDI
• Assessee Lawyers: M.K. C H O WD H Y
• Keywords: Opportunity of being heard; Cost of acquisition
• Section: 147; 148; 144; 54

Judgement Text

" आयकर अपीलीय अधिकरण, र ाँची न्य यपीठ, र ाँची IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL RANCHI BENCH, RANCHI BEFORE SHRI GEORGE MATHAN, JM & SHRI RATNESH NANDAN SAHAY, AM आयकर अपील सं./ITA No.27/RAN/2025 (निि ारण वर्ा / Assessment Year :2017-2018) Meera Sinha, W/o Sushil Kumar Sinha, Shiv Durga Mandir Lane, Ratu Road, Ranchi-834001 Vs. ITO Ward-2(1), Rachi स्थायी लेखा सं./PAN No. : GDKPS 4910 L (अपीलार्थी /Appellant) .. (प्रत्यर्थी / Respondent) निर्ाारिती की ओर से /Assessee by : Shri M.K.Chowdhary, AR राजस्व की ओर से /Revenue by : Shri Ram Chandra Marndi, Sr.DR सुनवाई की तारीख / Date of Hearing : 05/01/2026 घोषणा की तारीख/Date of Pronouncement : 05/01/2026 आदेश / O R D E R Per Bench : This is an appeal filed by the assessee against the order passed by the ld.CIT(A), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi, dated 31.07.2024 for the assessment year 2017-2018. 2. It was submitted by the ld AR that the ld. CIT(A) was not justified in dismissing the appeal of the assessee in a summary manner, without adjudicating the grounds of appeal on merits. It was the submission that the assessee could not know about the issue of the notices, since the assessee being a senior citizen lady was unaware of income tax proceedings and her counsel Sonal Agarwal, CA who was resident of Agra, did not inform her. As such the order passed is unjustified and uncalled for. It was further submitted that the assessment proceeding u/s 147 r.w.s. 144 of the Act completed without service of any notice u/s 148 of the Act upon the assessee. Simply issue of notice u/s 148 at portal, without its service is non- Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.27/Ran/25 2 est in the eye of law. As such the assessment order passed is ab-initio void and be quashed. It was also the submission of the ld. AR that the order passed is liable to be quashed since the same was alleged to be passed on 31.03.2022 without DIN and without recording the reasons for passing of the manual order without DIN in utter violence of the mandate given by CBDT its CBDT Circular No. 19 of 2019 dated 14.08.2019. Ld. AR also submitted that the during the course of assessment, the AO was not justified in taxing the alleged LTCG of Rs. 87,42,000/- during the year since no delivery of possession of the alleged flats were received by the assessee during the year under consideration. In fact, the development agreement was registered on 10.11.2015 and the possession of the flats was given by the developer to the assessee on 12.10.2017 i.e. in AY 2018-19. As such the question of receiving any alleged sale consideration during the year does not arise and the AO erred in not reducing the indexed cost of acquisition of land and building out of the alleged taxable long term capital gain. Accordingly, ld. AR submitted that ld. AO erred in not giving deduction u/s 54 in respect of the flat no. 2/C and 3/C of total area 2,800 sq. ft. retained by the assessee for self-occupation of her and her family. Besides, the year of taxability even if the deduction is allowed u/s 54, the taxable LTCG will be Nil. 3. In reply, ld Sr. DR submitted that proper opportunities were allowed and the assessee could not produce the documents as required by both the authorities below. It was submitted that the orders passed by both the authorities below deserve to be upheld. Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.27/Ran/25 3 4. We have considered the rival submissions. A perusal of the facts of the present case and the orders of the lower authorities clearly shows that the assessee could not be able to substantiate her claim before either of the authorities below. This being so, in the interest of justice, the issues in this appeal are restored to the file of the ld. CIT(A) for readjudication afresh after granting the assessee adequate opportunity of being heard. It would also be advised at least one notice to be sent physically as the assessee claims that she does not have any email. All the legal issues raised by the assessee are left open. The assessee is also directed to cooperate with the ld. AO in the readjudication proceedings, positively. 5. In the result, appeal of the assessee is partly allowed for statistical purposes. Order dictated and pronounced in the open court on 05/01/2026. Sd/- (RATNESH NANDAN SAHAY) Sd/- (GEORGE MATHAN) लेख सदस्य / ACCOUNTANT MEMBER न्य नयक सदस्य / JUDICIAL MEMBER र ाँची Ranchi; दिनांक Dated 05/01/2026 Prakash Kumar Mishra, Sr.P.S. आदेश की प्रनिललपप अग्रेपर्ि/Copy of the Order forwarded to : आदेश िुस र/ BY ORDER, (Senior Private Secretary) आयकर अपीलीय अधिकरण, र ाँची / ITAT, Ranchi 1. अपीलार्थी / The Appellant- . 2. प्रत्यर्थी / The Respondent- 3. आयकि आयुक्त(अपील) / The CIT(A), 4. आयकर आयुक्त / CIT 5. निभागीय प्रनतनिनर्, आयकि अपीलीय अनर्किण, र ाँची / DR, ITAT, Ranchi 6. गार्ड फाईल / Guard file. सत्यापपत प्रतत //True Copy// Printed from counselvise.com "