Mandatory seven-day response period under section 148-A(b) invalidated reassessment proceedings and related penalty action.

A notice under section 148-A(b) of the Income-tax Act must grant at least seven days to respond; a five-day notice breached the mandatory statutory minimum and prejudiced the assessee, so the foundational notice was invalid. As that notice was the basis for the later action, the consequential order under section 148-A(d), notice under section 148, reassessment order, and penalty proceedings were unsustainable and were set aside by the HC.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued under section 148-A(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, granting less than seven days' time to respond, was valid and whether the consequential reassessment and penalty proceedings could survive.

Analysis: Section 148-A(b) requires that the assessee be given a show-cause notice with not less than seven days and not more than thirty days from the date of issue. The notice in question required a reply within five days. This was found to be in clear breach of the statutory minimum time prescribed under the provision and resulted in prejudice to the assessee, warranting interference. Once the foundational notice was invalid, the subsequent proceedings based on it could not stand.

Conclusion: The notice under section 148-A(b) was quashed, and all proceedings consequent to it, including the order under section 148-A(d), notice under section 148, reassessment order, and penalty orders, were set aside in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A notice under section 148-A(b) must afford at least seven days' time to respond, and any notice issued in violation of that mandatory minimum is invalid, rendering the consequential proceedings unsustainable.

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