In W.P.(LODGING) No.36794 of 2022-BOM HC- Merely because petitioner failed to submit grounds of appeal as attachment, could not be basis to pass order ex-parte especially when submissions reflected such grounds: Bombay HC sets aside Order passed u/s 250 of I-T Act
Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur & Kamal Khata [08-02-2023]

 

Read Order: Prime ABGB Private Limited Vs. National Faceless Appeal Centre And Ors 

LE Correspondent

Mumbai, March 14, 2023: The Bombay High Court has allowed a petition challenging the order passed by the appellate authority under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 primarily on the ground that the submissions made by the petitioner and uploaded in support of his memo of appeal had not been considered at at all and the decision was rendered ex-parte.

In this case, before the Division Bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Kamal Khata,  the petitioner had filed his memo of appeal in Form 35, however the grounds of appeal were not attached at the time of fling of Form 35 on account of some technical reasons. 

It was stated that during the course of the appeal proceedings, by virtue of notice, the petitioner was required to submit its grounds of appeal, which was not responded to by the petitioner. Subsequently, the petitioner was asked to upload the submissions vide various notices, to which the petitioner responded and filed its online submissions.

The petitioners had set up a case that without considering the submissions, the order impugned had been passed by the appellate authority holding that there was no response to the notices issued to the petitioner, which, it is stated, was factually incorrect.

The respondents did not deny that the submissions were uploaded, however, it was stated that the same were not visible to the appellate authority.

Failing to understand as to how it was possible that submissions once uploaded, were not visible to the appellate authority, the Bench noticed that it was certainly not the case of the revenue that the submissions were uploaded on a portal different from the one on which the appeal proceedings were being conducted.

“If that be so, merely because the petitioner has failed to submit the grounds of appeal as an attachment at the time of fling its memo of appeal in Form No.35, could not be a basis for the appellate authority to pass the order ex-parte especially when the submissions suffciently reflected the grounds on which the order of assessment was being challenged in the appeal proceedings”, the Bench further held.

Noticing that the order impugned passed by the appellate authority violated the principle of natural justice as the same had been passed ex-parte, without considering the submissions made by the petitioner, the Bench set aside the impugned order and remand the matter to the appellate authority, for a fresh consideration.