AI Structured Summary
Not yet generated for this judgment
Judgment
PER KRINWANT SAHAY, AM :
The present appeal is filed by the Assessee against the order of Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) National Faceless Appeal Centre (‘Ld. CIT(A)/NFAC’ for short), New Delhi dated 20.08.2025 for the Assessment Year 2019-20
Grounds of appeal raised by the Assessee are as under:
A. That the Ld. CIT (A) has grossly erred both in law and on fact by dismissing the appeal of the appellant on the ground of non-submission of response to the notices which was beyond the control of the appellant.
B. That the Ld. CIT (A) has grossly erred both in law and on fact by confirming the penalty of Rs. 50,000/- U/s 272A(1)(d) under Income Tax Act, 1961 imposed by the Assessing Officer without application of mind vide his order dated 20/08/2025.
C. On the facts and circumstances of the case it is submitted that the approval of the Pr. CIT Delhi -10, New Delhi is not a valid approval under the law for passing the order under clause (d) of section 148A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
D. That On facts and circumstances of the case, it is submitted that the notice u/s 148A(b) of the Act, and order passed u/s 148A (d) of the Act and notice u/s 148 of the Act are invalid and illegal as the same is contrary to the amended provision of Section 151A read with Section 144B of the IT Act.
E. In view of the facts and circumstances of the case the appellant prays that the appeal may be allowed by set asiding the impugned order or to pass any other order which this Hon'ble Tribunal deems fit and proper including remanding back the appeal to Ld. CIT(A) for fresh adjudication.
F. The above grounds of appeals are independent of, and without prejudice to each other. That the appellant craves leave to add, alter, amend or withdraw all or any grounds herein as may be considered necessary either before or during the hearing of the appeal.
None appeared on behalf of the Assessee despite the fact that notice of hearing had been duly issued well in advance by the ITAT. However, upon perusal of the material available on record, we are of the view that the appeal can be adjudicated on the basis of such material. Accordingly, we proceed to decide the appeal after hearing the Ld. Departmental Representative.
From the grounds of appeal raised by the Assessee, it is gathered that the main grievance of the Assessee is that the Ld. CIT(A), without properly considering the submissions and the material available on record and adjudicating the issues on merits, dismissed the appeal by merely upholding the action of the Assessing Officer of imposition of penalty. Accordingly, the Assessee through grounds of appeal raised made a prayer to quash/set aside the impugned order of the Ld. CIT(A) and to remand the matter to the file of the lower authorities for fresh adjudication.
Per contra, the Ld. DR relied mostly on the orders of the authorities below However, simultaneously, he pointed out that despite opportunities given by the Ld. CIT(A) to the Assessee, no compliance was made.
We have carefully considered the findings recorded by the Ld. Assessing Officer in the assessment order as well as those of the Ld. CIT(A) in the appellate order, and have also taken into account the submissions advanced by the Ld. Departmental Representative. It is observed that the assessment has been framed ex-parte by the Assessing Officer in the quantum appeal of the Assessee for AY i.e. 2019-20 in question and in that case, we have already remanded the matter to the file of the Assessing Officer in Assessee appeal ie. ITA No. 5957/Del/2025 for denovo assessment.
We find that in this appeal, the Assessee is aggrieved with the penalty proceedingsinitiated u/s 271A(1)(d)) of the Act by the Assessing Officer. The maincontention of the Assessee through grounds of appeal raised is that the Ld. CIT(A) has erred in confirming the order of the Assessing Officer for imposition of penalty and has erred in not serving the order upon the Assessee within the time prescribed and as such the same deserves to be quashed.
The Ld. DR fairly agreed that the issue of penalty-imposed will depend upon the de novo assessment framed by the Assessing Officer and therefore, this appeal also needs to be remanded to the file of the Assessing Officer.
We have heard the rival submissions and perused the material available on record. Since we have restored the quantum appeal of the assessee to the file of the Assessing Officer for de novo assessment, the penalty proceedings initiated under the Act and sustained by the Ld. CIT(A) are only consequential in nature. In such circumstances, the same do not survive at this stage. Accordingly, we set aside the impugned order on this issue and restore the matter to the file of the Assessing Officer, who shall decide the same afresh in accordance with law, after affording reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee.
In the result, the of the assessee us allowed for statistical purposes.