Lalit Kumar vs ITO, Ward -1

PER MANISH AGARWAL, AM:

This Appeal is filed by the assessee against the order of Learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi (‘the CIT(A) in short) passed u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, in appeal No. NFAC/2014-15/10305074 dated 03.03.2025 for Assessment Year 2015-16.

At the outset, it is seen that the appeal of the assessee is dismissed by the Ld. CIT(A) for non-prosecution. Before us, the Ld. AR submitted that the Ld. CIT(A) has issued notices which were delivered to the registered email address of the appellant, and were also uploaded in the portal of the Department, however, the assessee was not aware of the proceedings nor such notices were brought to his knowledge by the Accountant of the assessee, therefore, the necessary compliance could not be made either before the AO or before the CIT(A). He thus prayed that the matter may be remand back to the file of the AO for fresh adjudication.

Per contra, the Ld. Sr. DR has not objected to the request of the assessee.

After considering the arguments, we find that in the instant case, the assessee was not aware of such drastic changes in faceless assessment schemes and was unware of all the activities like issue of notices through email and to respond such notices online, therefore, due compliance could not be made before the lower authorities. Under these circumstances, in the larger interest of justice, one more opportunity is given to the assessee and the matter is remitted back to the file of the AO with direction to decide the issue denovo afresh after providing reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. The assessee is also directed to participate in the proceedings before the AO. With these directions, all the grounds of appeal of the assessee are partly allowed for statistical purposes.

In the result, appeal of the assessee stands allowed for statistical purposes.