Curable defect in income-tax appeal cannot justify dismissal without notice or chance to rectify the filing.

Income-tax appeals should not be dismissed on curable procedural defects without notice and an opportunity to rectify them. The Tribunal treated the memorandum as defective because no power of attorney was found in favour of the practising chartered accountant and considered the appeal argumentative, but no defect memo was issued and no chance was given to amend the filing. The High Court held that the assessee could not be prejudiced for omissions attributable to its representative where the defect was capable of correction. The Tribunal's order was quashed and the matter remitted for fresh decision in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal was justified in dismissing the assessee's appeals as defective without issuing notice to cure the alleged defects and without affording an opportunity to rectify them.

Analysis: The appeals had been filed through a practising chartered accountant, and the Tribunal declined to proceed when no power of attorney was found in his favour and when the memorandum of appeal was treated as argumentative and defective. In income-tax appeals, disposal must be on merits, and where a curable defect is noticed, the appellant should be informed and given an opportunity to remove it. The assessee could not be made to suffer for omissions attributable to its representative, particularly when no defect memo had been issued and no opportunity was given to amend the memorandum.

Conclusion: The Tribunal's order was illegal and unsustainable; the writ petition was allowed, the impugned order was quashed, and the matter was remitted to the Tribunal for fresh decision in accordance with law.

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