TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (2) TMI 65
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....n up and disposed off by way of a consolidated order. 2. I shall first take up the appeal filed by the assessee in ITA No.325/RPR/2023 for assessment year 2014-15 and the order, therein, passed shall mutatis-mutandis apply to the remaining appeals. The assessee society has assailed the impugned order on the following grounds of appeal: "(iv) That the Id CIT(A) has erred in sustaining the disallowance of deduction u/s.80P(2) made by the Id AO at Rs. 23,767/ i.e., the gross profit of PDS business of Rs. 2,58,020/ less proportionate expenses of Profit & Loss Account of Rs. 2,34,253/ hence the net profit from the PDS business comes to Rs 23,767/ and full amount is eligible for deduction u/S80P(2)(GJ(11) for such other business. (v) The Learned AO has only allowed a general deduction of Rs 50,000/ U/S 80P(2)(GJ(11) whereas the entire income of the society is deductible U/S 80P (v) The Id AO has erred in disallowing the deduction u/s80P(2) of other income including dividend income of Rs.7,15,444/ and membership fees/entry fees income of Rs.285/ totaling to Rs. 7,15,729/. The learned AO has only allowed dividend income of Rs.1,53,238/ as exempt and the ....
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....-2022 3-Nov-2023 495 12. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Doma 334/RPR/2023 27-Apr-2022 26-Jun-2022 3-Nov-2023 495 13. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Doma 335/RPR/2023 27-Apr-2022 26-Jun-2022 3-Nov-2023 495 14. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Bhakhara 336/RPR/2023 11- Mar-2022 10-Mar-2022 3-Nov-2023 542 15. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Bhakhara 337/RPR/2023 11- Mar-2022 10-Mar-2022 3-Nov-2023 542 16. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Bhakara 338/RPR/2023 11- Mar-2022 10-Mar-2022 3-Nov-2023 542 17. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Bhakara 339/RPR/2023 11- Mar-2022 10-Mar-2022 3-Nov-2023 542 18. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit Doner 340/RPR/2023 3- May-2023 3-May-2023 3-Nov-2023 124 19. Gramin Sewa Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Doner 341/RPR/2023 3-May-2023 3-May-2023 3-Nov-2023 124 4. Succinctly stated, the assessee society, which is engaged in the business of banking, paddy procurement, sale of fertilizers, seeds and pesticides and controlled items under public distributi....
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.... and the date of service of the order as per the appeal Memo in Form No.35 filed by the appellant is mentioned as 26.02.2016. The appellant has filed the appeal on 22.03.2016, which is within the prescribed period. 4.1 The appellant had not filed his written submission with his Form 35. Therefore, it was given multiple opportunities to file written submission. The notices were issued electronically through the ITBA, but the appellant has failed to comply with the same. The details of the notices issued are as under : Sr. No. Date of issue of notice u/s.250 Sent by/through Compliance by Appellant 1. 22.02.2021 ITBA No compliance 2. 18.01.2022 ITBA No compliance 3. 07.02.2022 ITBA No compliance 4.2 The issue of non-compliance by assessees at appellate stage has been considered and decided by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and Various High Courts as discussed below: 4.3 The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the decision pronounced on October 25, 2019 in the case of PCIT vs. NRA Iron & Steel Pvt. Ltd in Civil Appeal No. of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 29855 of 2018) has held that if a notice is duly served upo....
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.... passed by the learned Tribunal can be said to be suffering from vice of arbitrariness, unreasonableness and therefore, interference of this Court is called for. It is true that normally High Court would not interfere with the order of remand passed by the learned Tribunal remanding the matter for fresh adjudication. However, provided the order passed by the learned Tribunal is backed by cogent reasons and does not suffer from any unreasonableness and arbitrariness like in the present case. The exercise of powers in such a manner and exercise of such appellate powers and passing the non speaking and non reasoned order and the orders which are passed by the Tribunal, which suffers from unreasonableness and arbitrariness and / or at the whims of the Tribunal not backed by any reason can be said to be pure question of law and therefore, interference of this Court is required. 1 It is required to be noted that in the present case right from very begging i.e. assessment proceeding, assessee was non cooperative. Number of opportunities were given by the AO, however assessee did not cooperate and even did not file any reply. Therefore, considering the material on record, the AO m....
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....nt power which every tribunal possesses." 4.6 The principle that every court that is to decide on a matter of dispute, inherently possesses the power to dismiss the case for default, has been upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in case of Dr. P. Nalla Thampy Vs. Shankar (1984 (Supp) SCC 63 and the case of New India Assurance vs. Srinivasan (2000) 3 SCC 242. In the latter case, the Apex Court has held as under:- "That every court or judicial body or authority, which has a duty to decide a list between two parties, inherently possesses the power to dismiss a case in default. Where a case is called up for hearing and the party is not present, the court or the judicial or quasi-judicial body is under no obligation to keep the matter pending before it or to pursue the matter on behalf of the complainant who had instituted the proceedings. That is not the function of the court or, for that matter of a judicial or quasi judicial body. In the absence of the complainant, therefore, the court will be will without its jurisdiction to dismiss the complaint for non prosecution. So also, it would have the inherent power and jurisdiction to restore the complaint on good caus....
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....rm 35 does not provide any further information or corroborating evidences. 6 In view of the above clear position of law and respectfully relying upon the judgments of Hon'ble High Courts as above, this issue is dismissed. 6.1 In the result, appeal is dismissed." 7. The assessee being aggrieved with the order of the CIT(Appeals) has carried the matter in appeal. 8. I have heard the Ld. Authorized Representative of both the parties, perused the orders of the lower authorities as well as material available on record. 9. Shri Rakesh Dhody, Ld. Authorized Representative (for short 'AR') for the assessee society at the threshold of hearing of the appeal submitted that the present appeal involved a delay of 493 days. The Ld. AR has filed an "affidavit" dated 06.11.2023 of the assessee society which had sought for condonation of the delay involved in filing the present appeal. For the sake of clarity, the same is culled out as under: Elaborating on the reasons leading to the aforesaid delay, it was submitted by the Ld. AR that there were multi-facet reasons leading to the same, viz. (i) that as the earlier chartered accountant of the assessee society, viz.....
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.... of the present appeal. Although the claim of the Ld. AR that the delay of 493 days involved in filing of the present appeal had occasioned, inter alia, for the reason that Shri Rakesh Khandelwal, Chartered Accountant who was looking after the case of the assessee society had unfortunately expired, though at the first blush appeared to be a justifiable reason, but a closure scrutiny of the facts in no way supports the aforesaid claim o the assessee. On a perusal of the records, it transpires that Shri Rakesh Khandelwal, Chartered Accountant had unfortunately expired in the month of April, 2021, i.e., at the time when the appellate proceedings were going on in the case of the assessee society before the CIT(Appeals). As observed by me hereinabove, the assessee society had not only failed to bring the aforesaid fact to the notice of the CIT(Appeals) and thereafter make necessary arrangements for prosecuting its appeal before him but had adopted a callous and non-cooperative approach in the course of the proceedings before him at all. It is incomprehensible that the assessee society was not conversant about the fact that its appeal has been taken up for hearing by the CIT(Appeals) and....
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....ent appeal that was filed on 03.11.2023, i.e., after 2½ years from the date of said unfortunate event. I, say so, for the reason that as in the present case, the assessee had filed the appeal on 03.11.2023 i.e. two and half years from the unfortunate demise of its chartered account, therefore, there is no basis for the assessee to have claimed that the said delay had occasioned for the reason that its case had remained unattended after the death of his previous counsel. As the assessee ought to have taken necessary steps not only in prosecuting the matter which on the date of death of his earlier counsel was pending before the CIT(Appeals), but was also expected to be vigilant to file the appeal against the impugned order before the Tribunal within the stipulated time period, which, as observed by me hereinabove, he had failed on both counts for no justifiable reasons. As such, the failure of the assessee society to prosecute the appeal before the CIT(Appeals) and thereafter, substantially delaying the filing of the present appeal clearly reveals its lackadaisical approach with respect to its income tax matters. 13. In my considered view, the assessee society had only in ....
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....idence the fact that the substantial delay involved in filing of the appeal was not backed by any bona fide reasons, but a careless approach on its part, which it had tried to justify on the basis of its multifacet contentions that have not legs to stand upon. 15. At this stage, I may herein observe that where an application for condonation of delay has been moved bonafide, then, the Court would normally condone the delay, but where the delay has not been explained at all and in fact there is an unexplained and inordinate delay coupled with negligence or sheer carelessness, then, the discretion of the court in such cases would normally tilt against the applicant. My aforesaid conviction is supported by the order of "Division Bench" of the ITAT, Mumbai in the case of M/s. Phoenix Mills Ltd. Vs. Asstt. CIT in ITA No.6240/MUM/2007 for A.Y.1999-2000, dated 23.03.2020. Reverting to the facts of the present case, I have already examined the reasons that had led to the inordinate delay, which has not been explained by the assessee society to have occasioned due to bonafide reasons. As observed by me hereinabove, as there was no justifiable reason for the assessee society to file the pr....
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.... April, 2021, therefore, its case for the said reason had, thereafter, remained unattended; (ii) that the assessee society is based in a rural area; (iii) that the staff of the assessee society which was working under the Government supervision and Jila Sahakari Bank in a rural area, was not computer literate; (iv) that books of the account of the assessee society was being manually maintained; and (v) that access of internet was also not proper in the rural area where the assessee society was based. As observed by me hereinabove, the conduct of the assessee society reveals beyond doubt that the delay in filing of the appeal had occasioned on account of sheer negligence and carelessness on its part as regards filing of the present appeal within the stipulated time period. 18. Also, as observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Ramlal, Motilal and Chotelal Vs. Rewa Coalfields Ltd. AIR (1962) 361 (SC) that seeker of justice must come with clean hands, therefore, now when in the present appeal before me the assessee appellant had failed to come forth with any good and sufficient reason that would justify condonation of the inordinate delay of 493 days involved in preferri....