Jyotiben Niranjan Jani Vs DCIT (ITAT Ahmedabad)
Assessee, a senior citizen lady engaged only in share trading with no regular employees except a part-time accountant, filed ROI declaring ₹3,57,862. CPC processed the return u/s 143(1) & made an adjustment of ₹12,81,710 u/s 36(1)(va) based entirely on PF/ESI figures appearing in the originally uploaded Form 3CD, which mistakenly carried data belonging to another client of the CA due to a software error. Assessee filed rectification u/s 154, but CPC rejected it.
Before CIT(A), Assessee produced a revised Form 3CD dated 13.07.2022 showing that she had no PF/ESI liability at all, but CIT(A) refused to admit it & upheld CPC’s adjustment.
Before Tribunal, Assessee demonstrated that the wrong 3CD was uploaded inadvertently, that the CA had accepted the mistake, & that PF/ESI laws did not apply since she had no employees. Tribunal held that once a revised 3CD correcting the error is duly uploaded & acknowledged, natural justice requires proper verification. Since CPC could not consider the corrected TAR & CIT(A) wrongly refused to admit it, Tribunal restored the matter to the jurisdictional AO for fresh examination of the revised 3CD, verification of employee status, and determination of applicability of section 36(1)(va). Tribunal granted full opportunity to Assessee & allowed the appeal for statistical purposes.
