TOLA-based reassessment notices issued after 1 April 2021 for Assessment Year 2015-2016 were invalid and unsustainable.

Reassessment notices issued under section 148 for Assessment Year 2015-2016 after 01.04.2021, relying on the TOLA relaxation period, could not be sustained because the Supreme Court had accepted the Revenue's concession that such notices for that year had to be dropped. Following Rajeev Bansal, Deepak Steel and Power Ltd., and its own allied decisions, the Gujarat HC held that notices issued on or after 01.04.2021 and the consequential proceedings were invalid in law.

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Issues: Whether notices issued under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for Assessment Year 2015-2016 during the TOLA extension period and the consequential proceedings thereafter were valid in law.

Analysis: The petitions concerned reassessment notices issued after 01.04.2021 on the footing that the limitation stood extended by the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) regime. The Court noted that the Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal and later in Deepak Steel and Power Ltd. had accepted the Revenue's concession that, for Assessment Year 2015-2016, all notices issued on or after 01.04.2021 were required to be dropped as they could not be completed within the period prescribed under TOLA. The Court also relied on its earlier decision in allied matters following the same principle to hold that notices issued after 01.04.2021 for this assessment year could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The reassessment notices were held to be invalid and unsustainable for Assessment Year 2015-2016.

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