PRAHALAD RAI SUTODIA,KOLKATA V. ITO, WARD 36(5), KOLKATA

ITA 912/KOL/2024

AI Insights

The case involves Prahalad Rai Sutodia, who appealed against the order of the CIT(Appeals), Kanpur, which was passed for the Assessment Year 2017-18. The primary issue arose from the assessee's failure to provide necessary documents during the assessment proceedings, leading the Assessing Officer to assess the income based on available records, resulting in a higher taxable income. The CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal ex-parte due to non-compliance by the assessee in submitting written submissions or evidence. The ITAT, considering the circumstances and the principle of natural justice, decided to remit the case back to the CIT(Appeals) for a fresh hearing.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 27083 (ITAT-KOLKATA)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 26-02-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: SMC
• Assessment Year: 2017-2018
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Set aside; Opportunity of being heard; Principle of natural justice
• Section: 142(1)

Judgement Text

" ITA No. 912/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2017-2018) Prahalad Rai Sutodia 1 IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, ‘SMC’ BENCH, KOLKATA Before Shri Duvvuru RL Reddy, Vice-President (KZ) I.T.A. No. 912/KOL/2024 Assessment Year: 2017-2018 Prahalad Rai Sutodia,………………….....……Appellant C/o. S.N. Ghosh & Associates, Advocates, “Sagar Mansion”, 2, Garstin Place, 2nd Floor, Suite Nos. 202 & 203, Hare Street, Kolkata-700001 [PAN:ARSPS6928G] -Vs.- Income Tax Officer,…………………………....Respondent Ward-36(5), Kolkata, Aayakar Bhawan, Poorva, 110, Shanti Pally, 6th Floor, Eastern Metropolitan By Pass, Kolkata-700107 Appearances by: Shri Somnath Ghosh, Advocate, appeared on behalf of the assessee Shri Somnath Das Biswas, Sr. D.R., appeared on behalf of the Revenue Date of concluding the hearing: January 21, 2025 Date of pronouncing the order: February 26, 2025 O R D E R The present appeal is directed at the instance of assessee against the order of ld. Addl./JCIT(Appeals), Kanpur dated 26th February, 2024 passed for Assessment Year 2017-18. ITA No. 912/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2017-2018) Prahalad Rai Sutodia 2 2. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is an individual, who filed his return of income for the assessment year 2017-18 on 25.03.2018 in ITR-2 declaring total income of Rs.4,86,610/-. In his return of income, the assessee has shown that cash amounting to Rs.9,45,000/- has been deposited in his Bank account during the demonetization period of 09.11.2016 to 31.12.2016. The case was selected for limited scrutiny by CASS. Notice under section 143(2) of the Act was issued to the assessee on 21.09.2018 by ITO, Ward-35(1), Kolkata from ITBA and duly served on the assessee. Further notice under section 142(1) of the Act was issued on 03.06.2019 alongwith detail questionnaire and served upon the assessee by e-mail requesting to submit his reply on or before 18.06.2019. Due to non-compliance by the assessee, the ld. Assessing Officer has left with no alternative but to assess the income of assessee on the basis of information/data available on the records and the assessment was completed under section 143(3) of the Act assessing the total income at Rs.14,31,610/-. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals). 3. The ld. CIT(Appeals) has given several opportunities to the assesese to substantiate its claim, but the appellant did not file the written submissions and did not represent the case before the ld. CIT(Appeals). Thereafter the ld. CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal ex-parte on 26th February, 2024. 4. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the ITAT. ITA No. 912/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2017-2018) Prahalad Rai Sutodia 3 5. At the time of hearing, it was the submission of the ld. Counsel for the assessee that ld. CIT(Appeals) did not consider the case on merit, rather he just upheld the order passed by the ld. Assessing Officer. Therefore, he pleaded to delete the addition made by the ld. Assessing Officer as confirmed by the ld. CIT(Appeals). 6. At the outset, ld. D.R. brought to my notice that the assessee did not produce the relevant documents as asked by the ld. Assessing Officer during the assessment proceedings. Therefore, the ld. Assessing Officer passed the assessment order assessing the taxable income at Rs.14,31,610/- as unexplained. Thereafter the assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals). The ld. CIT(Appeals) has given many opportunities to the assessee and the assessee neither filed written submission nor any evidence before the ld. CIT(Appeals). He further submitted that before the ITAT, the assessee did not substantiate his claim. Therefore, he pleaded to uphold the orders passed by the revenue authorities. 7. I have heard the rival submissions and perused the material available on record. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, I am inclined to set aside the order passed by the ld. CIT(Appeals) in order to meet the principle of natural justice, and remit the matter back to the file of ld. CIT(Appeals) with a direction to provide one more opportunity of being heard to the assessee. At the same breath, I also hereby caution the assessee to promptly co-operate with the proceedings before the Ld. CIT(Appeals) failing ITA No. 912/KOL/2024 (A.Y. 2017-2018) Prahalad Rai Sutodia 4 which the Ld. CIT(Appeals) shall be at liberty to pass appropriate order in accordance with law and merits based on the materials available on the record. Thus, the grounds raised by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes. 8. In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 26/02/2025. Sd/- (Duvvuru RL Reddy) Vice-President (KZ) Kolkata, the 26th day of February, 2025 Copies to :(1) Prahalad Rai Sutodia, C/o. S.N. Ghosh & Associates, Advocates, “Sagar Mansion”, 2, Garstin Place, 2nd Floor, Suite Nos. 202 & 203, Hare Street, Kolkata-700001 (2) Income Tax Officer, Ward-36(5), Kolkata, Aayakar Bhawan, Poorva, 110, Shanti Pally, 6th Floor, Eastern Metropolitan By Pass, Kolkata-700107 (3) Addl./JCIT(Appeals), Kanpur; (4) CIT - ; (5) The Departmental Representative; (6) Guard File TRUE COPY By order Assistant Registrar, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata Benches, Kolkata Laha/Sr. P.S. "