Guru Shoes Tech Pvt. Ltd Vs ITO (ITAT Agra)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Agra Bench, partly allowed the assessee’s appeal for Assessment Year 2016-17 arising from an order passed by the National Faceless Appeal Centre against the assessment order framed under Sections 147 read with 144 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
At the outset, the Tribunal considered a delay of 535 days in filing the appeal before it. After examining the reasons stated in the condonation petition, the Tribunal held that the assessee had been prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal within the prescribed time. Accordingly, in the interest of substantial justice, the delay was condoned and the appeal was admitted for adjudication.
The Tribunal first examined the assessee’s contention that the assessment order as well as the appellate order had been passed using a non-existent Permanent Account Number (PAN), which went to the root of the matter. The assessee, a private limited company since its inception, had originally been allotted a PAN in the status of a firm. Upon noticing the error, the assessee surrendered the incorrect PAN on 06.06.2011 and obtained a fresh PAN in the correct status of a company. Thereafter, the assessee consistently filed its income tax returns using the new PAN.
