Income Tax Appellate Tribunal - Mumbai
Eastern Oceanic Impex Private Limited , ... vs Income Tax Officer 4 (1) (4), Mumbai on 12 April, 2019
IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL,
MUMBAI BENCH "G", MUMBAI
BEFORE SHRI C.N.PRASAD, JUDICIAL MEMBER AND
SHRI RAJESH KUMAR, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER
MA No.77/Mum/2018
(Arising out of ITA No.316/Mum/2016)
Assessment Year: 2008-09
M/s. Eastern Oceanic Income Tax Officer-4(1)(4),
Impex Pvt.Ltd. Room No. 637A, 6th Floor
109, Parasram Building Aayakar Bhavan,
Vs.
Dr. BabasahebJayakar M.K. Road,
Marg Mumbai - 400020
Mumbai-400 002
PAN: AAACE0981B
(Appellant) (Respondent)
Present for:
Assessee by : Ms. Neha Paranjpe, A.R.
Revenue by : Shri Chaudhary Arun Kumar Singh, D.R.
Date of Hearing : 29.03.2019
Date of Pronouncement : 12.04.2019
ORDER
Per Rajesh Kumar, Accountant Member:
By virtue of this miscellaneous application, the assessee seeks the recalling of the order passed by the Tribunal in ITA No. 316/Mum/2016 for AY. 2008-09 dated 29/12/2016 which was passed ex-parte.
2. The Ld. AR submitted before the bench that order has been passed ex-parte without hearing the assessee on merits and therefore may be recalled. The Ld. AR while explaining the absence on the date of hearing submitted before the bench that the case was scheduled for hearing on 06/11/2017. However, no bench was specified in the said notice and the assessee was under the impression that the case would be assigned to some 2 MA No.77/M/2018 (Arising out of ITA No.316/M/2016) M/s. Eastern Oceanic Impex Pvt.Ltd.
specific bench. However the assessee did not receive any communication from the registry of the Tribunal qua the date of hearing. On Friday 03/11/2017 , the applicant accessed the site of the Tribunal to check the cause list in order to ascertain the hearing on 06/11/2017 but found that the case did not appear in the cause list from 6.11.2017 to 10.11.2017. Thereafter, the assessee came to know that the case has been heard and order has been passed exparte by the Hon'ble Tribunal dismissing the appeal of the assessee and said order was downloaded from the site of the ITAT on 03/11/2017 wherein stated that the hearing of the case on 06/10/2016. The ld AR requested that at the time of hearing, the assessee was not represented at all and thus the case was heard and decided exparte. Ld. AR submitted that the assessee did not receive any communication of preponing the case from 06/11/2017 to 03/10/2016. Thereafter, in order to verify the fact of the fixation of the date of hearing the assessee sought inspection of file and the assessee came to know that there were two notices issues prior to the date of hearing which were returned back without being served on the assessee, though address on the said notices were correctly mentioned. Ld. AR for the assessee submitted that on the front side of notices it was "NOT CLAIMED RETURN TO SENDER" whereas a back side of the letter, it was mentioned that "DOOR LOCKED". All these facts and circumstances adequately explain that case was heard ex- parte for the reasons beyond the control of the assessee. The ld. AR, therefore, prayed that one more opportunity may be granted to the assessee so that the case could be represented before the Hon'ble Tribunal on merits of the ground. The Ld. DR on the 3 MA No.77/M/2018 (Arising out of ITA No.316/M/2016) M/s. Eastern Oceanic Impex Pvt.Ltd.
other hand strongly objected to the arguments of the Ld. AR by submitting that non-appearance despite sending of the two notices which could not be served for the various reasons and therefore, the miscellaneous application may be dismissed.
3. After hearing both the parties and perused the material on record, we find that in this case the notices were not served to the assessee resulting into ex-parte decision by the tribunal for no fault of the assessee. Under these circumstances, we are inclined to recall the order dated 29/12/2016 in ITA No. 316/Mum/2016 and registry is directed to fix the hearing of the case before the regular bench.
The miscellaneous application is allowed.
Order pronounced in the open court on 12 /04 /2019 Sd/- Sd/-
(C.N.Prasad) (Rajesh Kumar)
JUDICIAL MEMBER ACCOUNTANT MEMBER
Mumbai, Dated:12.04.2019
* Thirumalesh, Sr. P.S.
Copy to: The Appellant
The Respondent
The CIT, Concerned, Mumbai
The CIT (A) Concerned, Mumbai
The DR Concerned Bench
//True Copy// [
By Order
Dy/Asstt. Registrar, ITAT, Mumbai.