Substantial Justice More Important Than Technical Delays: ITAT Restores Case

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Pune Bench, has ruled that a small delay should not stop a taxpayer from getting a fair decision based on the merits of the case.

The case is related to the assessee, Abdul Gani Dawood Khan Deshmukh, who had not filed his Income Tax Return (ITR) even though he had purchased an immovable property of Rs 51,70,000. Even after he was issued several notices by the Assessing Officer, there was no response from his side. As a result, the AO completed the assessment and passed an ex parte order under Section 147, read with Section 144, by treating the entire amount as income.

The assessee filed an appeal before the National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC) with a delay of 30 days. However, the NFAC did not even examine the case and dismissed the appeal just because of the delay. Therefore, the assessee approached the ITAT.

The assessee said that he had to travel to India in 2024 due to the death of his mother, and until that date, he was not aware of any order. He said that the appeal should be heard on the merits.

The Tribunal observed that the previous rulings of courts and tribunals have held that substantial justice must be preferred over technical delays. It referred to Supreme Court rulings, including the principle that a case should not be rejected just because of a delay.

Therefore, the ITAT restored the matter to the CIT(A)/NFAC. The appellate authority has been directed to condone the delay and decide the case afresh after giving a proper opportunity of hearing to the assessee.