The Cochin bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that the reasons such as financial crisis and labour unrest are enough grounds for condoning the delay in filing an appeal under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
There was a delay of 329 days in filing an appeal by the assessee. Petitions for condonation of delay were filed by the ex-Directors along with affidavits of the ex-Managing Directors stating therein that the quantum assessments and penalty orders were passed subsequent to their retirement and was not aware of the assessments and penalty proceedings till the ex-Directors received the recovery notices for penalty imposition u/s 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act. The new management filed the appeal after a delay of 329 days.
After hearing the rival contentions from both the sides on the delayed condonation petition, the Tribunal observed that “the delay in filing these appeals are on account of difficulties faced by the assessee-company such as financial crises, labour unrest, etc. These facts are borne out from the material placed on record. Therefore, no latches can be attributed to the assessee-company for the belated filing of these appeals. Hence, the delay in filing these appeals is condoned and we proceed to dispose of the same on merits.”
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