2008 (4) TMI 82

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....Ms. K. Medhi for the respondents. JUDGMENT AMITAVA ROY J. - 1. This petition under article 226 of the Constitution of India registers a challenge to the order dated August 23, 2007, passed by the learned Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Guwahati Bench, Guwahati (hereinafter referred to as "the Tribunal"), dismissing four appeals being I. T. A. Nos. 29/Gau/2006, 30/Gau/2006, 35/Gau/2006 and 36/....

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.... Tribunal under section 253 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). The learned Tribunal by the impugned order dismissed the appeals solely on the ground that the appellant-assessee had failed to appear before it on the date fixed for hearing. This course of action of the learned Tribunal, as the impugned order reveals, was purportedly by invoking rule 19(2) of the Inco....

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....e impugned order on the face of the record is illegal and liable to be interfered with in the interest of justice. In support of his contention, learned senior counsel has placed reliance on the decision of the apex court in CIT v. S. Chenniappa Mudaliar [1969] 74 ITR 41 as well as of this court in The Assam Tribune v. CIT [2006] 285 ITR 452. 5. Mr. Bhuyan, learned standing counsel, for the Rev....

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....4 as it stands, per se does not empower the learned Tribunal to dismiss an appeal for default in the absence of the appellant. The learned Tribunal's reliance on the decision of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi, rendered in CIT v. Multiplan India (P.) Ltd. [1991] 38 ITD 320, is apparently misplaced in the teeth of the decision of the apex court in CIT v. S. Chenniappa Mudaliar [1969] 74 IT....