Jurisdiction for reassessment requires valid transfer under Section 127; without it, the notice issued by the transferee officer is void.

An Assessing Officer at Bhubaneswar could not validly issue a reassessment notice to a non-resident assessee when the jurisdiction record showed the case with the International Taxation office at New Delhi and no transfer order under Section 127 was produced. Section 120 permits internal allocation of functions, but a transfer between non-subordinate assessing authorities requires a lawful Section 127 order and an opportunity of hearing. The reliance on later material, including a lower deduction certificate, did not establish that jurisdiction had shifted for the relevant assessment years. The notice under Section 148, and all consequential proceedings, were therefore held void for want of jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether the Assessing Officer at Bhubaneswar had jurisdiction to issue notice under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to a non-resident assessee whose jurisdiction was shown as lying with the International Taxation office at New Delhi, in the absence of an order transferring the case under Section 127 of the Act.

Analysis: The assessee was a non-resident company and the record did not establish any place of business or operation at Jharsuguda so as to justify the assumption that jurisdiction had shifted to Bhubaneswar. The Department relied on a lower deduction certificate and connected material, but those facts related to a later transaction and did not explain how jurisdiction for the relevant assessment years stood transferred. Section 120 permits allocation of functions within the hierarchy of assessing officers, but where the officer from whom the case is transferred and the officer to whom it is transferred are not subordinate to the same authority, Section 127 governs the transfer. In such a situation, a reasonable opportunity of being heard and a lawful transfer order are required. No such transfer order from the New Delhi jurisdiction to Bhubaneswar was produced.

Conclusion: The notice under Section 148 issued by the Bhubaneswar officer was without jurisdiction and unsustainable in law; the notices and all consequential proceedings were quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Jurisdiction over an assessee cannot be shifted from one non-subordinate assessing authority to another except by a valid transfer under Section 127 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and in the absence of such transfer any reassessment notice issued by the transferee officer is void.

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