ITAT can permit a “Legal Contention” at the appellate stage even if it is raised for the first time

The Tribunal in the assessee’s appeal considered several grounds titled as “Additional grounds”. However, upon close perusal of such so-called grounds, we notice that such grounds were nothing but legal contentions and arose out of order of CIT(Appeals) which was under challenge before the Tribunal. None of the contentions could be stated to be such which would require investigation into factual aspects before either accepting or rejecting the contentions. It is well settled that a legal contention is always open for the Tribunal to permit even for the first time at the appellate sta...