2025 (6) TMI 1218

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....1961 [hereinafter referred to as "the Act"] dated 04.02.2022 for the A.Y. 2015-16. Brief Facts of the Case 2. The assessee, an individual, filed his return of income for A.Y. 2015-16 originally on 26.03.2016 declaring total income of Rs. 7,05,740/-. In the said return, the assessee did not offer any capital gain on transfer of land but instead disclosed a long-term capital loss by claiming indexed cost of acquisition and improvement. The Assessing Officer (AO) gathered information that the assessee had transferred immovable property admeasuring 6750 sq.mtrs at Gotri, Vadodara for a consideration of Rs. 11,63,23,857/-, wherein assessee's 1/3rd share worked out to Rs. 3,87,74,619/-. Upon issuing notice u/s 133(6) on 07.02.2020, the asse....

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....17.01.2024, 09.02.2024, and 19.02.2024. However, the assessee failed to respond to any of these notices or to file any written submission. The CIT(A), relying on some judicial precedents including the judgement of Hon'ble Supreme Court in CIT vs. B.N. Bhattacharjee [1970] 10 CTR 354 (SC) dismissed the appeal in limine for want of prosecution, without adjudicating on merits. 3. Aggrieved by the order of CIT(A), the assessee is in appeal before us raising following grounds of appeal: 4. All the grounds of appeal in this appeal are mutually exclusive and without prejudice to each other: 1. The penalty order passed by the learned Income Tax Officer, National Faceless Assessment Centre, Delhi ("AO") u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act is bad in law and....

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....nderstanding. It was explained that the registered email address of the assessee on the income-tax portal had become inoperative over a period of time, as a result of which the assessee could not receive any electronic communications from the department, including notices or the order passed by the CIT(A). The assessee remained under a bona fide impression that upon passing of the rectification order under section 154 of the Act, wherein the quantum addition was significantly reduced, the Assessing Officer would suo motu revise or rectify the penalty order accordingly, and therefore, no further independent action was required on his part. Since no physical copy of the CIT(A)'s order was served upon him, the assessee remained unaware of ....

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....dress registered by the assessee on the income-tax portal had become inoperative over a period of time, thereby preventing effective communication of departmental notices and orders. Furthermore, no physical copy of the order passed by the CIT(A) was ever served upon the assessee, which further compounded the difficulty. In addition, the assessee was under a genuine and mistaken belief that since the quantum addition was substantially reduced pursuant to the rectification order passed u/s 154 of the Act, the consequential penalty proceedings would automatically stand revised or nullified without the need for any further action on his part. It was only when the assessee accessed the income-tax portal in connection with verification under the....