Cancellation of ITAT Benches and revised date of hearing through cause list on e-notice board – such general notice is not proper. In any case reasonable notice and time should be allowed.

Cancellation of ITAT Benches and revised date of hearing through cause list on e-notice board –  such general notice is  not proper. In any case reasonable notice and time should be allowed.

Notice of hearing:

Notice of hearing is an important aspect in administration of justice. An order passed without serving proper notice and without allowing reasonable opportunity of hearing can render injustice. Orders passed in such circumstances can lead to litigation and second  or multiple rounds of litigation.

Many times we find that very short notices are issued for date of hearing and assesse and his authorised representative  (AR)and Departmental Representative (DR) get inadequate time. For this reason, assesse  his AR or D/R has to seek adjournment.

Sometimes  again adjournment is also allowed for very short period and again assessee or D/R need to apply for adjournment.

Some members prefer to allow very short time and it becomes difficult to prepare case satisfactorily and in filing of paper books. Reasonable time should be allowed particularly because now-a-days it is more important to gather up-to date information from various websites to represent case.

Notice for date of hearing and new date of hearing in case of adjournment:

Firstly a notice of filing of appeal is served on respondent along with copy of appeal memo and grounds of appeal preferred by the appellant.  Generally this notice is also accompanied with notice or information about date of hearing. In case date is not fixed, then date is notified later  before the case is fixed for hearing.

In case of adjournment of hearing by Tribunal, a notice for revised or new date of hearing is issued. In this notice date of last  fixed date  (L / F) is also indicated.  Different forms are used for date of first hearing  and  date of subsequent hearing or date of hearing on  adjournment.

Adjournment when Representative is present:

When  assessee or his  representative AR or DR is present in Court Room and new date is announced, conveying date by announcement is good enough, provided that the assesse or his AR or DR take note of the same and there is clear communication and it is signed by them.  To avoid any confusion or communication mistake, it is better to get signed order sheet in which next date is fixed by the AR or DR.

Now-a-days we can find it on portal also after few days if we search orders for particular case, because even orders sheets/order for calling of case and adjournment sough and allowed are also mentioned. However, we cannot fully rely on this because many times there can be delay in uploading of such orders.

Therefore, when assessee or his A/R and D/R is not present, it is desirable that the date of next hearing should be communicated properly in writing.  

 Adjournment of hearing by Tribunal:

Many times hearing is adjourned by Tribunal for reasons like:

(a) The bench is not functioning on date of hearing fixed.

(b) Declaration of holiday on the date or hearing fixed.

(c) Bench was supposed to function but for some reasons bench is unable to function.

(d) Shortage of time.

Proper communication of new date of hearing is very much essential.

In such circumstances representative of assesse may not be available at the time of hearing. If  D/R has permanent postings and there is office of CIT (D/R ITAT) then D/R is likely to be present in Court Room and he can note date of next hearing. However, in case of assessee it will not be possible if he or his AR is not present.

Communication of next date through notice board:

Earlier we used to receive notice of adjournment and new date of hearing. However during last few years practice of mentioning date of hearing in case of adjournment in cause list has been adopted or sometimes it is mentioned in the notice of constitution of benches.

Cancellation on ITAT Benches:

Cancellation of benches of ITAT takes place for several reasons. We find  considerable occasions for cancellation of benches. For example on 23.01.2026 at about 16:55 to 17:10 hours on the e-notice board  of ITAT  that is https://itat.gov.in/judicial/notice_board we find details as follows in search with different words and phrases used for cancellation :

Search with “cancel”

Showing 1 to 2 of 2 entries (filtered from 201 total entries)

Search with “ function”

Showing 1 to 9 of 9 entries (filtered from 201 total entries)

Search with adjourned

Showing 1 to 3 of 3 entries (filtered from 201 total entries)

Out of 201 entries 14 entries relate to cancellation/ revision of benches. There can be some more cases in which difference phrase or sentence can be found which did not find place in above searches on website. Besides one or two items appears for some other matter but found inclusion in search. For example   “Delhi - Creation & use of dedicated email ID for Judicial functions “  posted on 16.12.2025.
 

Revised dates:

Cause list of revised dates are  few times   displayed on the same day  but on majority  times after some days.

Therefore, assessee or their  AR  and also DR  have to keep a regular watch on the e-notice board. If some entries are missed, then there can be nonattendance due to unaware about date fixed.

Cancellation on benches on 15.01.2026  in Maharashtra due to elections.

https://itat.gov.in/judicial/notice_board

On the front page on e-notice board,as above there is no clarity about adjournment and new dates fixed. On reading of the same one can only think about cases fixed on 15.01.2026 for which Benches are  adjourned.

On perusal of the cause list we find most of assessees  as appellant or respondent are individuals and there are some companies and trusts.

https://itat.gov.in/public/files/upload/1768390518-jwW9Gf8e-CMS.pdf

INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, PUNE CAUSE LIST OF A BENCH FOR 15-JANUARY-2025 (THURSDAY) BENCH CANCELLED THE FOLLOWING CASES ARE ADJOURNED. NO SEPARATE HEARING NOTICE WILL BE ISSUED.

We find that for all benches cases fixed on 15.01.2026 are adjourned to 20.01.2026, 21.01.2026 and 22.01.2026  This means that very short notice has been given which allows only three, four or five working days.

Benches  which were to hear cases are “A’, “B”  “C” and SMC benches.

Number of cases fixed for hearing are 23, 16, 6, and 16 respectively.

The heading of cause list cum notice also states that NO SEPARATE HEARING NOTICE WILL BE ISSUED.

Reason for adjournment has not been given but it seems to be due to Municipal Elections in Maharastra on 15.01.2026 which is declared a public holiday in view of voting to take place.

This was well planned and known local affiar, therefore,  notice could have been given well in advance whereas it was posted on 14.01.2026.

Notice and cases adjourned and refixed  issued vide e-notice board is as follows:

Please insert

Similarly cases at Mumbai and other places in Maharstra were also adjourned.

https://itat.gov.in/judicial/notice_board

Mumbai - Benches were adjourned  for 15 January 2026 through two links  found in searches. Out of this one was posted on 14.01.26 and another on 16.01.26

Conclusion:

Notices issued through ITAT’s e-notice board cannot be called proper notice. This may create lot of difficulties when AR or assessee has to come from other cities to attend case. Even in case of local people it is difficult to keep track about the same.

Adequate and reasonable time should be allowed by any means and method like  notice through physical notice, or notice in email, SMS, Whatsapp message etc. Otherwise, principal of natural justice will not be followed.