M.H.S.Ansari, J. - (1.) This is an appeal under Section 260A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, against the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), whereby the miscellaneous applications filed by the assessee for recalling the ex parte order dated November 29, 1999, in I. T. A. Nos. 1870 and 1871 (Cal) of 1993 for the assessment years 1985-86 and 1986-87 was rejected.
(2.) The appeal was admitted by an order dated January 8, 2001, on the following two questions : "1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal unlawfully and unjustly dismissed the appeals relating to the assessment years 1985-86 and 1986-87 ex parte thereby denying the assessee the opportunity of being heard and further compounded the injustice by declining to recall such ex parte order of dismissal despite the proof of the fact of the advocate's sickness incapacitating him to attend the hearing, the appellant-assessee not being at fault; and 2. Whether it is not appropriate and not consonant to law and justice to decline to recall the order having been passed without consideration of the reasoning of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) for deleting the additions as the dismissal of the appeals amounts to dismissal for default without consideration of the case on merits?"
(3.) Learned counsel for the appellant did not press the second question before us and instead prayed that the order under appeal rejecting the miscellaneous applications be set aside and the appeal before the Tribunal be considered on the merits.;