Jurisdictional objection to section 148 notice must be raised within the return period, or section 124(3)(b) bars it.

A jurisdictional objection to a reassessment notice under section 148 must be raised within the time allowed for filing the return, and section 124(3)(b) bars a later challenge where no return is filed after service of the notice. The article explains that, because the assessee did not object within the statutory period, the challenge to the Assessing Officer's territorial allocation could not survive as a valid jurisdictional objection. The rejection of the objection was therefore sustained, and the writ petition was dismissed, leaving the Revenue free to proceed in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the assessee could validly question the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer issuing notices under section 148 after expiry of the time allowed for filing the return, and whether the impugned rejection of the jurisdictional objection was sustainable.

Analysis: The notices under section 148 required the assessee to file returns within 30 days from service. The assessee received the notices on 27 March 2015 but did not raise the jurisdictional objection within that statutory period. Under section 124(3)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, a person who has made no return after service of a notice under section 148 cannot question the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer after expiry of the time allowed for making the return. The challenge to the officer's territorial allocation under the CBDT notification was therefore only an objection to a perceived irregularity in the allocation of work and not a challenge that survived the statutory bar. The impugned letter was confined to the reason that section 124(3) had already extinguished the right to object, and no additional ground was required to be supplied.

Conclusion: The jurisdictional objection was barred by section 124(3)(b) and was rightly rejected.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was dismissed, and the Revenue was left free to proceed in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: A jurisdictional objection to an Assessing Officer issuing a notice under section 148 must be raised within the time allowed for filing the return under that notice, failing which section 124(3)(b) bars the challenge.

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