TMI Blog2013 (12) TMI 1165X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Supreme Court - If the accounts might have been audited as per direction of the A.O. especially when the assessee claimed that accounts were perfect and there was no requirement for getting accounts audited - The assessee never filed any objection against the letter dated 08.03.2006 - Due to non-cooperation of the assessee, the A.O. was forced to pass the ex parte assessment order under Section 144 of the Act and only after the assessment order, the assessee has filed the objections - Decided against assessee. - Income Tax Appeal No. - 7 of 2012 - - - Dated:- 18-12-2013 - Hon'ble Rajiv Sharma And Hon'ble Dr. Satish Chandra,JJ. For the Appellant : Mudit Agarwal For the Respondent : D. D. Chopra ORDER (Delivered by Hon. Dr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... days. Instead of making the compliance of directions, the assessee has challenged the letter dated 08.03.2006 before the Hon'ble High Court by filing a writ petition, which was dismissed on 30.03.2006. Not being satisfied, the assessee has filed the SLP before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, which was also dismissed in limine. In view of above, the A.O. wrote another letter dated 01.06.2006 and asked the assessee to do the needful. There was no response on the part of the assessee. On 09.06.2006, the A.O. has no other option except to frame the assessment order under section 144 of the Income-tax Act. In first appeal, the assessee took the plea that the assessment order is time barred. According to the assessee, the assessment order should ha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stipulated period of 30 days or whether the period is extended by the A.O. It is also not evident as to whether the a ssessee has cooperated with the auditor or not. As these questions of fact has not been dealt by the Tribunal in its impugned order and as such we set aside the impugned order passed by the Tribunal and remit the matter to examine the aforesaid questions of fact and record a categorical finding after examining the entire evidence as per law and pass necessary order de novo by providing a reasonable opportunity to the assessee. The Tribunal will be at liberty, in the interest of justice, to admit the fresh evidence, if need be. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purpose." In compli ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ts audited from the total period available with the Assessing Officer for completing the assessment. According to the learned counsel, the proviso to Explanation-1 speaks that whether the time left out with the A.O. after exclusion of the period given in the letter for getting the accounts audited is less than 60 days, such remaining period shall be extended to 60 days and the aforesaid period of limitation shall be deemed to be extended automatically. Lastly, he made a request for dismissal of the appeal. After hearing both the parties and on perusal of the record, it appears that only dispute before us is whether the assessment was time barred or not. For ready reference, we extract clause (iii) of Explanation 1 to section 153, which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... red to be furnished because as per the Limitation Act, the day on which the letter issued is to be excluded. Hence, it is evident that the A.O. was having only one day which is less than 60 days. But fact remains that in the instant case, the A.O. has issued the first letter on 08.03.2006, which was received by the assessee on 13.03.2006. So, the assessee was required to get its accounts audited to 12.04.2006. In normal course, it is expected that the A.O. will complete the assessment within the assessment year in question i.e. 31.03.2006, but he wrote a letter to the assessee for getting its accounts audited. Therefore, the period from 08.03.2006 to 31.03.2006 is excluded from the computation of period for the purpose of completing the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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