Assessing Officer authority under section 120(4)(b) failed, making the reassessment without jurisdiction and invalid.

A Joint Commissioner can act as an Assessing Officer only if specifically directed under section 120(4)(b) to exercise that office's powers and functions. In the absence of any written order authorising the Joint Commissioner in the assessee's case, a general notification or an order under section 120(1) and (2) was insufficient. The objection was not one of territorial jurisdiction under section 124(3), but a challenge to authority to act at all. The reassessment was therefore held to be without jurisdiction and invalid, and the assessee's jurisdictional challenge succeeded.

---

---

Issues: Whether the reassessment order was valid when the Joint Commissioner who passed it was not shown to have been empowered by a proper order under section 120(4)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The definition of Assessing Officer in section 2(7A) treats a Joint Commissioner as an Assessing Officer only when he is directed under section 120(4)(b) to exercise the powers and functions of that office. The record did not contain any order in writing issued under section 120(4)(b) authorising the Joint Commissioner to act in the assessee's case. A general notification or an order under section 120(1) and (2) was held insufficient for this purpose. The objection under section 124(3) was not accepted as the challenge was to authority to act at all, not merely to territorial jurisdiction. The reassessment was therefore held to be without jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The reassessment order was invalid and liable to be quashed; the jurisdictional challenge succeeded in favour of the assessee.

---