Reconsideration of limitation after appeal admission treated dismissal as part of final appellate hearing.

Once an appeal is admitted after condonation of delay and fixed for final hearing, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner may still reconsider limitation at the hearing stage. An order dismissing the appeal after admission and notice for hearing is treated as an order made under the appellate hearing provision, not merely at the admission stage. The effect is that the dismissal is within the appellate jurisdiction exercised on final disposal, even if limitation is the reason for rejection.

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Issues: (i) Whether, after admitting an appeal and issuing notice for final hearing, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner could again consider whether the appeal was time-barred. (ii) Whether an order dismissing such an appeal after admission and notice for hearing was an order under Section 31 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, or under Section 30(2) of that Act.

Issue (i): The statutory scheme under Section 30(2) permitted admission of an appeal after expiry of time if sufficient cause was shown. Once the appeal had been admitted, there was no legal bar preventing reconsideration of the question of limitation at the stage of hearing.

Conclusion: The Appellate Assistant Commissioner was not debarred from reconsidering whether the appeal was time-barred.

Issue (ii): After admission of the appeal and issuance of notice fixing the date and place of final hearing, the matter stood for disposal under Section 31. An order dismissing the appeal at that stage, even on the ground of limitation, was therefore an order under Section 31 and not merely an order under Section 30(2).

Conclusion: The dismissal order was an order under Section 31 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered in favour of the assessee, and the appellate dismissal was treated as falling within the appellate hearing provision rather than the admission stage.

Ratio Decidendi: Once an appeal is admitted under the delay-condonation power and posted for final hearing, the subsequent dismissal of that appeal is made in exercise of appellate jurisdiction under the hearing provision, and limitation may still be reconsidered at that stage.

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