ITAT Condones Delay and Grants Fresh Opportunity After Notices Sent to Outdated Email IDs

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Delhi, has offered significant relief to an assessee by giving another opportunity, as the income tax notices were sent to the old email IDs.

The assessee, Delhi E-Governance Society, filed its return for the assessment year 2019-20. However, while processing the ITR, the CPC rejected the exemption claimed by the assessee under Section 11 of the Income Tax Act.

The assessee appealed before the CIT(A), but the same was dismissed because the assessee society could not file Form No. 10B/10 within the due date. The CIT(A) upheld the exemption rejection. Therefore, the assessee filed an appeal before the ITAT with a delay of 110 days.

The assessee explained that notices were either uploaded on the portal or were sent to outdated email IDs of former employees, due to which it was unaware of the communications. The assessee society also argued that the CIT(A) had dismissed the appeal ex parte since the society could not attend the appellate proceedings due to the same reasons.

The Tribunal accepted this explanation and condoned the delay.

The Tribunal observed that the assessee was not given a proper opportunity to present its case. Since notices were sent to old email addresses, the Society could not effectively appear in appellate proceedings.

The Tribunal granted another opportunity to the assessee, citing the principles of natural justice. Accordingly, the CIT(A) was directed to give three proper opportunities to the assessee to represent its case.