As per a recent order held by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Delhi Branch, CIT (A) is not allowed to reject applications (appeal) on a technical basis without providing an opportunity to the assessee for making the required correction.
In this case, AO passed an ex-parte assessment order as per section 147 or 144 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 
Only form number 35 was available on the department’s official website and the applicant has not submitted a copy of the demand notice along with fees for filing the appeal. The assessee’s counsel requested an adjournment which was rejected. The CIT (A) accordingly rejected the appeal of the assessee as was not admitted for the reasons mentioned above.
The counsel stated that the assessee has uploaded the demand notice and paid the fees for filing the appeal, which has been ignored and only a notice was issued for which date the assessee had sought an adjournment, which was rejected.
The bench consists of B.R.R. Kumar and Bhavesh Saini stated that if such arise of amount on the account due to non-downloading of demand notice or fees for filing an appeal before the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (A). no notice has been delivered to the assessee to rectify the appellant paper.
The assessee was given only notice as to the date for which the assessee’s counsel sought an adjournment which was denied. It shows that the CIT (A) passed the order in hurry even without giving any meaningful opportunity for the assessee to be heard.
The Delhi branch of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) quashed the previous order in this matter and reinstated the assessee’s appeal of the file of CITI (A) with instructions to make a re-decision on the assessee’s appeal as per Law, and give ample opportunity to hear the assessee.
