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Judgment
PER ANUBHAV SHARMA, JM:
This appeal is preferred by the Assessee against the order dated 28.07.2023 of the Ld. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), NFAC, Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the First Appellate Authority or ‘the ld. FAA’ for short) in appeal No.CIT(A), Rohtak/10364/2018-19, filed before him against the order dated 21.12.2018 passed u/s 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) by the DCIT, Cir. Sonepat (hereinafter referred to as the Ld. AO, for short).
On hearing both the sides, we find that the impugned order has been passed by the NFAC by mentioning that the notices were issued to the assessee for hearing, but, no submissions were filed. We find that the appeal before this Tribunal is also filed with the delay and an application for condonation of the delay has been filed along with an affidavit of one Shri Jai Prakash Soni, General Manager, explaining the reasons for the delay. Although the delay is of a substantial period of 563 days, but, we find that the assessee is a cooperative society and between 13.06.2023 and 10.07.2025, there has been change of five persons designated as General Manager who were responsible for the affairs of the cooperative society. In the application filed and the affidavit enclosed it has been deposed that until the demand was raised, the cooperative society was not aware of the proceedings. It appears that there has been some negligence on the part of the authorities representing the interest of the cooperative society. However, they should not prove fatal as the cooperative society represents interests of its members who are primarily agriculturists. Thus, we consider it an appropriate case to condone the delay before this Tribunal and after admitting the appeal the issues on merits are restored to the files of ld.CIT(A)/NFAC to give a fresh opportunity of hearing to the assessee and pass an order afresh.