2022 (2) TMI 1245

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.... & 2015-16. 2. Shri Shri Thomson Thomas, CA appeared on behalf of the assessee and Shri V. Roy Jose, CIT-DR appeared on behalf of Revenue. 3. The assessee was in the business of manpower recruitment. There was a search on assessee's premises on 27.03.2015. After the search the business of the assessee was shut down. The assessment originally the assessment concluded under Section 153C r.w.s. 144 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. On account of closure of the business the Director of the company had sought employment abroad. It was the submission that on account of delay in filing of appeal against the assessment order the same came to be dismissed by the learned CIT(A), originally against which an appeal had been filed to the Tribunal and t....

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....hen the assessee's representative had gone to the AO's office for cross examination the AO denied opportunity of cross examination on the ground that no person from the assessee company in the capacity of Director/Managing Director appeared and that the authorised representative is not permitted to cross examination the witnesses. The learned A.R. drew our attention to the remand report given by the AO on 25.11.2019 which is extraced as below:- "3. As per the directions of the ITAT, Kochi, in ITA Nos.518 to 523/Coch/2018 dated 04.02.2019 and that of the CIT(A)-III, Kochi, vide letter cited under reference, the assessee was given an opportunity to represent its case. The assessee's Authorised Representative (A.R.) Shri. Thomson ....

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....issues in the appeals may be restored to the AO and the assessee's authorised representative may be permitted to cross examine the witnesses. It was the submission that nowhere in the Act nor in the statute there provision that only the assessee is permitted to cross examine the witnesses. It was submitted that the assessee company's Director had specifically authorised the representative to cross examine the witnesses. 5. In reply the learned D.R. vehemently supported the order of the learned CIT(A). It was submitted that right from the time of assessment there was non-cooperation from assessee's side. It was submitted that retractions given by the persons whose statements have been taken are also of identical format. It was the submiss....