Assessee had filed an application seeking condonation of delay in filing appeal before Tribunal. Tribunal dismissed the  application on a presumption that since assessee could not attend proceedings and there was no one to press application, assessee was not interested in pursuing appeal. On appeal  referring the judgement in  CIT v. S. Chenniappa Mudaliar [1969] 74 ITR 41 (SC)  the Court held that   Tribunal was bound to give proper decision on question of fact as well as law on merits and it could not dismiss an appeal owing to default of appearance. Accordingly   the order of the Tribunal was to be set aside and matter was to be remanded back to Tribunal to decide issue on merits.  (AY. 2016-17)