Alakapuri Sai Mandiram Trust Vs ITO (ITAT Hyderabad)
The Trust filed an appeal before the CIT(A) 1,817 days late against a 143(1) intimation. CIT(A) refused to condone the delay because the Trust did not provide any reasonable or sufficient cause for such an extraordinary lapse.
Before the ITAT, the Trust again could not demonstrate any justifiable reason for the huge delay. The Tribunal held that condonation under Section 249(3) is a discretionary power, exercisable only when a genuine cause is shown. Here, no explanation whatsoever had been provided either before CIT(A) or before ITAT.
Since the Trust failed to satisfy the basic requirement of explaining the delay, ITAT found no error in the CIT(A)’s refusal to condone & therefore upheld the dismissal.
Held: Appeal rightly dismissed as time-barred; no relief possible without reasonable cause.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT HYDERABAD
This appeal is filed by Alakapuri Sai Mandiram Trust, Hyderabad (“the assessee”), feeling aggrieved by the order passed by the Learned Addl/JCIT(A)-2, Chandigarh, (“Ld. First Appellate Authority)”) dated 29/04/2025 for the A.Y. 2018-19.
2. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal:
3. The brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a trust which had filed an appeal before the Ld. First Appellate Authority against the processing of return of income made by the Centralized Processing Centre (“CPC”) under section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“the Act”) dated 26.09.2019. However, there was a delay of 1,817 days in filing the appeal before the Ld. First Appellate Authority. The Ld. First Appellate Authority, after considering the submissions of the assessee, did not find the reasons for such an inordinate delay to be satisfactory and accordingly declined to condone the delay. Consequently, the appeal of the assessee was dismissed by the Ld. First Appellate Authority in limine as being barred by limitation.
