The Kolkata bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that a revision order passed under section 263 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 without mentioning the DIN number is invalid and shall be deemed as never issued.
The assessee trust operates under the Tata Cancer Hospital looking after the treatment of cancer patients. The objectives of the trust are to promote prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and research for cancer patients. Assessee filed its return of income on 29.09.2016 reporting total income for Rs. Nil. The Assessee challenged a revisional notice received on the ground that the order passed under section 263 of the Act did not contain any Document Identification No. (DIN) nor any reason for non-issuance of DIN along with the impugned order.
Before the Tribunal, the assessee relied on a CBDT circular No. 19/2009 dated 14.08.2019.
After analysing the facts and the documents, the Tribunal bench comprising Shri Sanjay Garg (Judicial Member) and Shri Girish Agrawal (Accountant Member) observed that “it is an undisputed fact that the impugned order u/s. 263 of the Act has been issued manually which does not bear the signature of the authority passing the order. Further, from the perusal of the entire order, in its body, there is no reference to the fact of this order issued manually without a DIN for which the written approval of Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income-tax was required to be obtained in the prescribed format in terms of the CBDT circular. We also note that in terms of para 4 of the CBDT circular, such a lapse renders this impugned order as invalid and deemed to have never been issued.”
Quashing the order, the Tribunal held that “Considering the facts on record, perusal of the impugned order, submissions made by the Ld. Counsel and the department, CBDT circular and the judicial precedents including that of Hon’ble Supreme Court and the jurisdictional High Court of Calcutta, we are inclined to adjudicate on the additional ground in favour of the assessee by holding that the order passed by the Ld. CIT(E) is invalid and deemed to have never been issued as it fails to mention DIN in its body by adhering to the CBDT circular no. 19 of 2019. Accordingly, additional ground taken by the assessee is allowed. Having so held on the legal issue raised by the assessee in the additional ground, the grounds relating to the merits of the case requires no adjudication. Accordingly, the appeal of the assessee is allowed in terms of above observations and findings.”
Shri Akshay Ringasia, CA & Tarak Nath Jaiswal, Advocate appeared for the assessee.
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