Nikhil Pratap Mokashi Vs ITO (ITAT Pune)
The appeal was filed by the assessee before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Pune against the order dated 11.09.2025 passed by the National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC) under Section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for Assessment Year 2020-21, arising from the assessment order dated 24.09.2022 passed under Sections 143(3) read with 144B of the Act.
At the outset, the Tribunal considered a delay of 52 days in filing the appeal. The assessee filed an affidavit explaining the reasons for the delay. After examining the explanation, the Tribunal found that a reasonable cause had prevented the assessee from filing the appeal within the prescribed period, held that the delay was not intentional, condoned the delay, and admitted the appeal for adjudication.
The assessee challenged the addition made towards capital gains, contending that the Divisional Valuation Officer (DVO) compared the property with properties situated outside the Defence Department’s Red Zone, failed to consider sale instances of properties in the same society, ignored the objections raised against the draft valuation report, and that the CIT(A) rejected the additional evidence and accepted the DVO’s report without considering its defects.
The assessee had filed the return of income for Assessment Year 2020-21 on 15.10.2020 declaring income of ₹2,68,410. The case was selected for limited scrutiny to examine whether the sale consideration of immovable property disclosed in the return was lower than the value adopted by the stamp valuation authority. During the year, the assessee entered into an agreement to sell an immovable property on 10.06.2019, disclosed a sale consideration of ₹65,00,000 and computed taxable capital gains of ₹16,65,486. The Assessing Officer noted that the stamp duty value of the property was ₹1,66,12,500.
