Appellate remedy is created to rest dispute, not to accelerate it – ITAT remands the case

Appellate remedy or forum is created by the statute to rest the dispute and not to accelerate for higher forum perfunctorily.

In a recent judgment, ITAT Pune has remitted the issue observing that appellate remedy or forum is created by the statute to rest the dispute and not to accelerate for higher forum perfunctorily.

ABCAUS Case Law Citation:
4791 (2025) (10) abcaus.in ITAT

In the instant case, the assessee had challenged the order passed under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) by the CIT(A)/NFAC in limine by not condoning the delay.

The assessee was an individual. His case was reopened on the issue of cash deposits by issuance of notice u/s148 of the Act.  There was no compliance to the statutory notices u/s.148, u/s.144 as well as notices u/s.142(1) of the Act.  In the absence of any response, the Assessing Officer (AO) made addition towards the cash deposits in the hands of assessee as unexplained money u/s.69A r.w.s.115BBE of the Act.

The first appeal came to be dismissed by CIT(A)/NFAC CIT(A) in limine by not condoning the delay observing that there was no participation by the assessee in the proceedings before the AO.

Before the Tribunal, the assessee submitted that notices u/s.142(1) were issued during covid-19 pandemic outbreak period restrictions.  The Assessee in the statement of facts given before CIT(A) had stated that appellant was tested with Covid-19 positive.  He was under bed rest at village for more than six months etc.  He was unaware of the notices and therefore he could not respond to the notices issued by the authorities.  Albeit, CIT(A) had extracted the said statement of facts but he chose to dismiss the appeal without condoning the delay. 

It was further submitted that almost two years period have been removed out of the limitation period by the Hon’ble Apex Court considering the difficulties faced by the litigants.  Therefore, CIT(A) ought to have condoned the delay as ‘reasonable cause’ prevented the assessee in filing the appeal before CIT(A).

The Tribunal observed that the appellate remedy or forum is created by the statute is to rest the dispute and not to accelerate for higher forum perfunctorily. The Tribunal referred the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court wherein it while dealing with tax litigation, held that the CIT(A)/NFAC being a quasijudicial authority was expected to adopt justice oriented approach rather resorting to iron-cast technical one, however the CIT(A)/NFAC came to dismiss the appeal of the assessee in limine on the ground of delay.

As a result, the Tribunal set-aside the impugned order and remitted all the issues to the file of CIT(A)/NFAC for de-novo adjudication and pass a speaking order in terms of provisions of section 250(6) of the Act. 

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