Jurisdictional defect in reassessment notice to a non-existent amalgamated entity cannot be cured by Section 292B.

A reassessment notice issued under Section 148 to an amalgamated entity that had already ceased to exist was treated as jurisdictionally defective because the proceeding must be initiated against an existing assessee. The defect was held not curable under Section 292B, since issuing notice to a non-existent entity was not a mere technical or clerical error in an otherwise valid proceeding. The result was that the notice was invalid and the reassessment challenge succeeded.

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Issues: Whether a notice issued under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to an amalgamated entity that had ceased to exist was valid, and whether the defect could be cured under Section 292B of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The notice was issued in the name of an entity that had already merged and ceased to exist. The jurisdictional foundation for reassessment must be laid against the correct existing assessee, and a notice issued to a dead or non-existent entity is fundamentally infirm. Section 292B could not be invoked to regularise this defect because the error was not a mere clerical mistake in an otherwise valid proceeding.

Conclusion: The notice under Section 148 was invalid and was not saved by Section 292B; the challenge succeeded.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment notice was quashed and the petition was allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: A jurisdictional notice issued to an entity that has ceased to exist upon amalgamation is void, and such a foundational defect cannot be cured by Section 292B of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

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