Reopening assessment against struckoff company -- dissolution under Companies Act 1956 negates notices and assessment validity.

Reopening an incometax assessment in the name of a company struck off under the Companies Act 1956 is impermissible because dissolution under that Act effects removal from the register and cessation of corporate existence; consequence: notices issued to the nonexistent entity lack operative foundation and cannot sustain assessment proceedings. The Companies Act 2013 contains an express exception preserving a dissolved company's existence for realisation of dues, whereas the 1956 Act contains no comparable saving; consequence: poststrikeoff tax actions must respect that absence and cannot be justified by the 2013 Act's framework.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the delay in filing appeal before the CIT(A) should be condoned on the ground of COVID-19 pandemic and related circumstances. (ii) Whether the reassessment proceedings and resulting addition under assessment year 2012-13 are void and liable to be quashed because they were initiated and framed against a company that stood struck off/dissolved under section 560(3) of the Companies Act, 1956.

Issue (i): Whether the delay in filing appeal before the CIT(A) should be condoned on the ground of COVID-19 pandemic and related circumstances.

Analysis: The Tribunal examined the affidavit and evidence regarding receipt of assessment order around January 2020, the period of court-ordered limitation extensions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and precedents applying a liberal construction of "sufficient cause" to advance substantial justice. The Tribunal noted absence of a counter-affidavit from Revenue and considered authorities holding that pandemic-related periods and inadvertent omission may constitute sufficient cause. The Tribunal compared the computed residual delay (approximately 160 days) with precedents condoning far longer delays and applied the principles favouring substantial justice over technical bar.

Conclusion: The delay in filing the appeal before the CIT(A) is condoned.

Issue (ii): Whether the reassessment proceedings and resulting addition are void as they were initiated and framed against a company that had been struck off/dissolved under section 560(3) of the Companies Act, 1956.

Analysis: The Tribunal found it was an admitted fact that the company was struck off/dissolved effective from the notice under section 560(3) of the Companies Act, 1956 and that this information was brought to the AO's notice prior to issuance of the section 148 notice. The Tribunal relied on coordinate-bench and Supreme Court authorities establishing that framing assessment against a non-existent entity is a jurisdictional defect, distinguished provisions of Companies Act 1956 and 2013, and applied those principles to the facts of the year under consideration.

Conclusion: The notice under section 148 and the consequential reassessment order framed against the non-existent company are quashed; ground 2(d) is allowed in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal is allowed on the legal issues decided: the delay in filing the appeal is condoned and the reassessment proceedings/assessment order for AY 2012-13 framed against a company struck off under section 560(3) of the Companies Act, 1956 are quashed, rendering the merits of the addition academic.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment or reopening notice framed and proceedings conducted in the name of an entity that has ceased to exist under section 560(3) of the Companies Act, 1956 is a jurisdictional defect and renders the proceedings void, and pandemic-related limitations extensions and attendant facts can constitute sufficient cause to condone delay for filing appeals.

---