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2016 (1) TMI 748 - AT - Income TaxPenalty u/s 274 read with section 271(1)(b) - nonappearance of the assessee on 09.10.2012, for the said date notices were issued u/s 143(2)/142(1) - Held that:- The explanation of the assessee before the ld. CIT(A) was that her sister-in-law Mrs. Anju Gupta was suffering from severe disease and had to be hospitalized on 06.10.2012. Thereafter on the date of hearing i.e. 09.10.2012, Sh. Satya Prakash Gupta “head of the family” and “father-in-law” of the assessee became ill and had to be hospitalized due to heart attack. In our opinion there was a reasonable cause for non-appearance for the hearing fixed on 09.10.2012, as such the confirmation of penalty levied by the AO u/s 271(1)(b) of the Act was not justified. In the present case, it appears that the AO levied the penalty for 7 assessment years running from 2005-06 to 2011-12 and the ld. CIT(A) deleted the penalty for the 4 assessment years i.e. the assessment years 2008-09 to 2011-12, considering the explanation of the assessee as plausible. However, the same explanation was not considered as proper for the remaining assessment years i.e. assessment years 2005-06 to 2007-08. In my opinion, the stand taken by the ld. CIT(A) was not justified particularly when he was satisfied that there was a proper and plausible explanation for the 4 out of the 7 assessment years for which penalty was levied by the AO u/s 271(1)(b) of the Act. Therefore, considering the totality of the facts delete the penalty levied by the AO and sustained by the ld. CIT(A). - Decided in favour of assessee
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