Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + HC Income Tax - 2021 (8) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2021 (8) TMI 570 - HC - Income TaxValidity and scope of E-Proceeding facility introduced by the Income Tax Department - Single member bench of the HC granted relief to the assessee - Proper opportunity was not afforded to the department - addition made under Section 69A of the Act on the demonetized cash deposit by the respondent herein in the bank - HELD THAT:- E-Proceeding does not foreclose the conduct of a physical hearing, but has circumscribed four conditions, on which, such hearing shall be conducted manually. In terms of Clause 5 of the Note, the assessee, who did not have e-filing account, were requested to get themselves registered. Admittedly, the respondent herein registered themselves and returns were filed through e-portal and the response to the notice u/s 142 of the Act was sent through the E-portal. It will be too late for the respondent herein now to state that all is not well with the E-Proceeding facility. There is nothing placed before us to show that the respondent herein – assessee made a specific request in terms of paragraph 4 of the above Note stating that they require a physical hearing for a particular reason. In such circumstances, the sweeping observations and remarks are not called for especially when the system has been implemented and all the assessee through out the country have switched over from manual procedure to e-procedure. The Court can take judicial notice of the fact that all recruitments conducted by various specialized recruitment agencies as well as this Court have been accepting applications from candidates only as e-copies through e-portal and it has been many years since physical applications have been done away with. The e-filing of such applications for recruitment to various posts in this Court as well as the District Judiciary have made the process very transparent and user friendly. When such is the present state of affairs and when all persons have equipped themselves to handle such procedure, we feel that the observations made in paragraphs 15 and 17 of the impugned order are not required. Writ appeal is allowed and the impugned order passed in the said writ petition is set aside. All observations and findings regarding the effectiveness of the E-Governance implemented by the ITD are set aside. Likewise, the observations and findings rendered in the impugned order touching upon the merits of the assessment are also set aside.
|