Wp/12588/2022 Of Rbl Bank Limited v. Deputy Commissioner Of Income Tax And Ors

Digitallysigned bySMITASMITARAJNIKANTRAJNIKANTJOSHIJOSHIDate:2023.08.1710:32:59+0530 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAYAPPELLATE SIDE CIVIL JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.12588 OF 2022 RBL Bank Ltd., ..v/s.Deputy Commissioner of Income TaxCircle-1, Kolhapur & Others .. Petitioner. Respondents. Mr. S. Sriram i/b. Sriram Sridharan, for Petitioner.Mr. Suresh Kumar, for Respondents. CORAM: K. R. SHRIRAM & FIRDOSH P. POONIWALLA,JJ.DATED : 8[th] AUGUST 2023. P.C:- Mr. Suresh Kumar, as an Officer of the Court, in fairness,states that Petitioner is justified in raising grievance that no personalhearing was granted before the impugned order dated 24[th] September2022 came to be passed. Mr. Suresh Kumar also relies on paragraph 4.2 ofthe affidavit-in-reply filed by one Mr. Vaibhav Dhere affirmed on 13[th]December 2022 where it is stated that order-sheet details and case-historynoting of the assessment proceedings in ITBA in this case that the requestsfor e-hearing through Video Conferencing made by Petitioner on 4[th]January 2022 and 14[th] September 2022 were not complied with byNational Faceless Assessment Centre. S.R.JOSHI 2In the circumstances, impugned Assessment Order dated 24[th]September 2022 is hereby quashed and set aside and the matter isremanded for de-novo hearing to the Faceless Assessing Officer. 3Consequently, the notice of demand dated 24[th] September2022 issued under Section 156 of the Income Tax Act,1961 (the Act) andnotice of penalty issued under Section 274 r/w. Section 270A of the Actalso dated 24[th] September 2022 are quashed and set aside. 4Faceless Assessing Officer shall pass a reasoned order aftergranting a personal hearing to Petitioner, notice whereof shall becommunicated atleast seven working days in advance. The AssessmentOrder to be passed within twelve weeks from the date this order isuploaded. 5Petition disposed. There shall be no order as to costs. 6We clarify that we have not made any observations on themerits of the Petition. (FIRDOSH P. POONIWALLA,J.) (K. R. SHRIRAM,J.)