TMI Blog1978 (8) TMI 60X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e month and six days on the ground that it was under the bona fide impression that the declaration could be filed along with the return. The ITO held that ignorance of law was no excuse. He refused to condone the delay. He treated the assessee as an unregistered firm and assessed it in that status. On appeal, it was held that the assessee had shown sufficient cause for the delay. It should have been condoned. The status of the firm was taken as that of a registered firm. The ITO went up to the Tribunal on the question of status of the assessee. On behalf of the revenue, it was submitted that no appeal lay against the ITO's order refusing to condone the delay in filing the declaration. Such an order is passed under s. 184(7) of the Act a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Chekka Ayyanna [1977] 106 ITR 313. For the reasons mentioned in that decision, we are of the. view that, under the circumstances, an appeal lay under s. 246(j) of the Act. The question whether an order refusing to condone the delay in filing the declaration is appealable can be considered from another view-point. Section 246 is in Chapter XX dealing with appeals and revisions. It authorises the assessee to appeal against the order of the ITO specified in the various cls. (a) to (o). Clause (c) of s. 246 provides : " (c) An order against the assessee where the assessee denies his liability to be assessed under this Act. ....... or to the status under which he is assessed. " The Explanation appended to this section says : " E ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssment. The second Explanation says : "Explanation 2.--' Status ', in relation to an assessee, means the classification of the assessee as an individual, a Hindu undivided family, or any other category of persons referred to in clause (31) of section 2, and where the assessee is a firm, its classification as a registered firm or an unregistered firm." It is clear that the assessment of a firm as a registered firm or as an unregistered firm is a matter of status, and a dispute that a firm was entitled to be assessed as a registered firm and not as an unregistered one is a dispute relating to the status in which the assessee-firm is liable to be assessed. It is clearly within the ambit of cl. (c) of s. 246 of the Act. The effect of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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