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Judgment
PER SANJAY AWASTHI, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER:
This appeal arises from order dated 27.03.2026, passed u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereafter as “the Act”), by Ld. Addl./JCIT(Appeals)-2, Delhi.
In this case, the Ld. AO – CPC disallowed expenditure u/s 36(1)(va) of the Act on account of EPF & ESI payments. It appears that the assessee could not adequately respond to the disallowance proposed due to a word limit prescribed on the Income Tax portal.
The aggrieved assessee approached the first appellate authority where also he could not succeed on the basis of finding given on pages 18 to 21. Briefly, the ld. Addl./JCIT(A) followed the cases of Checkmate Services reported in 448 ITR 519 (SC) to hold the issue against the assessee. The aggrieved assessee has approached the ITAT with grounds challenging the action of authorities below and also stating that adequate opportunity of being heard was not provided by either of the authorities below.
Before us the Ld. AR brought to our notice the fact that the assessee had good and sufficient reasons for any delay in complying with the payments pertaining to EPF & ESI. It was the submission that sufficient opportunity was not provided for explaining the case of the assessee. The Ld. AR took us through the facts as mentioned in various documents filed in the paper book.
The Ld. DR relied on the orders of the authorities below.
We have considered the rival submissions and have gone through the records before us. We find that due to reasons of space provided for filing written submissions the assessee could not adequately explain the alleged delay in making payment on account of EPF & ESI. Accordingly, in the interests of substantive justice, we deem it fit to set aside the impugned order and remit the same back to the file of Ld. AO for fresh assessment. The assessee would file his submissions in detail and the Ld. AO would consider the same before passing any order.
In the result, the appeal is partly allowed for statistical purposes.