The Kolkata Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that the advocates, and Chartered Accountants (CA) cannot be blamed for delay of 2655 days in filing appeal.
The bench of Duvvuru RL Reddy (Vice-President) has observed that merely handing over the appeal papers to the counsel/advocate is not sufficient to say that she has acted with due diligence. There is a huge delay in filing the appeal and delay is due to negligence act of the assessee only.
The assessee is an individual, who filed her return of income declaring total income at NIL. The eturn was processed under section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The case was selected for scrutiny under CASS and notice under section 143(2) was issued on 23rd August, 2010 and served on the assessee. Subsequently notice under section 142(1) was issued on 12th August, 2011 and duly served upon the assessee.
The assessee’s representative filed the supporting documentary evidences and explained the return. On perusal of the return, the assessee claimed deduction under section 80IB in a defective manner.
It was communicated to the assessee by letter that there happens to be certain deficits in the eligibility of her claim for the said deduction and the reasons were invited to show-cause why the claim of deduction under section 80IB would not be disallowed in the impugned assessment year.
There was no compliance from the assessee and the assessment was completed under section 144 and also initiated penalty proceedings under section 271(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was initiated for failure to comply with the terms of notices issued under section 143(2) and 142(1) and also denied the claim of the assessee under section 80IB. On being aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal before the CIT(Appeals).
The CIT(Appeals) has given twelve opportunities to the assessee to substantiate her claim, but the appellant does not file the written submissions and does not represent the case before the CIT(Appeals). The CIT(Appeals) dismissed the appeal.
The assessee filed a condonation petition contending that she had handed over the appeal papers to one Shri Tapas Kumar Majumder, who is practicing Advocate, but he did not file the appeal. Thereafter she engaged another Counsel namely Shri Ashok Chatterjee, FCA, but he has not filed the appeal. Subsequently she handed over to another counsel and he filed the appeal with a delay of 2655 days.
The tribunal held that it was gross negligence on the part of the assessee.
The ITAT stated that it was not a fit case to condone the huge delay of 2655 days. The condonation petition filed by the assessee is dismissed.
Case Details
Case Title: Sumita Roy Chowdhury Versus Income Tax Officer
Case No.: I.T.A. No. 1272/KOL/2024
Date: January 08, 2025
Counsel For Appellant: Mahadev Ghosh
Counsel For Respondent: Nicholash Murmu
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