No Fair Hearing? ITAT Restores Taxpayer’s Appeal After Notices Sent to Temporary Email ID:

No Fair Hearing? ITAT Restores Taxpayer’s Appeal After Notices Sent to Temporary Email ID The ITAT Surat granted taxpayer Yatin Vinubhai Dudhat a second opportunity by remanding the case back to the AO for fresh consideration, noting the assessee could not properly present his case, neither before the CIT(A) nor before the tax authorities. The assessee, Yatin Vinubhai Dudhat, had declared a total income of Rs 32.42 lakh in its income tax return (ITR) for the Assessment Year 2023-24. The case was selected for scrutiny assessment by the tax authorities, and accordingly, notices under section 143(2)/142(1) were issued. When the tax authorities did not receive any response to the notices, they completed the assessment ex parte by assessing the total income at Rs 23.05 crore after making certain additions and disallowances.

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The aggrieved assessee filed an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Surat, with a delay of 16 days. The assessee claims that the delay was unintentional; hence, they furnish an application/affidavit seeking condonation of delay. When the tribunal examined the reason specified by the assessee, they found it a “sufficient cause” for the occurrence of delay. Consequently, the tribunal condoned the delay and heard the appeal on merits. The tribunal observed that the first appellate authority, i.e., CIT(A), had decided the case ex parte, referencing the assessee's non-appearance on the dates of hearing. However, it was also true that the non-prosecution by the assessee was due to a genuine reason (bona fide). The assessee explained that the email ID (“[email protected]”) mentioned by him in Form No. 35 was temporarily created by his counsel, because of which he was unaware of the tax proceedings before the CIT(A) and consequently could not appear for the personal hearings.

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Additionally, it was also noted that "the Ld. CIT(A), while conducting first-appeal, has served notices of hearing on such temporary email id although the assessee specifically mentioned “-” in the column provided in Form No. 35 asking “Whether notices/communication may be sent on email?”. Therefore, the assessee demanded physical hearing from Ld. CIT(A) but against the demand of assessee, the Ld. CIT(A) issued notices through e-mail only." Considering the aforementioned findings, the tribunal concluded to grant the assessee a second opportunity in the interest of justice. The case is remanded back to the tax authorities for fresh adjudication. The assessee has been directed to make all relevant submissions before the AO and thereafter, the AO must pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with the law.