Laljibhai Parshottambhai Gaudani Vs DCIT (ITAT Ahmedabad)
Section 50C Dispute Remanded to DVO — Earlier Agreement Claim Rejected but FMV Examination Directed
The Ahmedabad Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal partly accepted the assessee’s appeal and remanded the matter relating to section 50C addition for fresh determination by the Assessing Officer after obtaining a valuation report from the DVO.
The assessee, a senior citizen, faced a delay of 180 days in filing the appeal, which was condoned by the Tribunal considering serious medical issues of the assessee and his spouse. On merits, the Assessing Officer had invoked section 50C by adopting stamp duty value of ₹59.90 lakh against actual sale consideration of ₹14.59 lakh, resulting in an addition of ₹45.30 lakh.
The assessee contended that an agreement to sell was entered into in FY 2004-05 and part consideration was received by cheque on 03.10.2004, and therefore, by virtue of the proviso to section 50C(1), stamp duty value as on the agreement date should be adopted. The Tribunal rejected this plea, noting that no agreement dated 03.10.2004 was produced and that the property was under a registered 30-year lease which was cancelled only on the date of sale, making the alleged earlier agreement implausible.
However, accepting the alternate plea, the ITAT held that since the assessee had disputed the stamp duty valuation as being higher than the fair market value, the Assessing Officer was duty-bound under section 50C(2) to refer the matter to the Departmental Valuation Officer. As this exercise was not carried out, the issue was set aside to the AO with a direction to obtain a DVO report and recompute capital gains after granting due opportunity of hearing.
The appeal was thus allowed for statistical purposes.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT AHMEDABAD
This appeal is filed by the assessee against the order of National Faceless Appeal Centre(NFAC), Delhi [hereinafter referred to as ‘CIT(A)’], dated 20.09.2024 for the Assessment Year (A.Y) 2012-13 in the proceedings u/s 143(3) r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax Act.
