Valid service of section 148 notice is a jurisdictional , and delayed service can render reassessment time-barred.

Service of a reassessment notice under section 148 was treated as a mandatory jurisdictional precondition, and issuance alone was held insufficient. The Tribunal found that the notice was not effectively served within time, as the Revenue's service by affixture and later through a notice server did not comply with the required procedure and the service record was unreliable. On those facts, the reassessment deadline had already expired, so the order passed later was held time-barred and invalid; the additions on merits became academic after the reassessment was quashed.

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Issues: (i) whether the reassessment notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was validly served within the prescribed time so as to confer jurisdiction to complete reassessment; and (ii) whether the reassessment order passed on 19.12.2019 was barred by limitation.

Issue (i): whether the reassessment notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was validly served within the prescribed time so as to confer jurisdiction to complete reassessment.

Analysis: The reassessment notice was issued on 28.03.2018, but the record showed that it was not effectively served until 19.02.2019. The Tribunal treated issuance and service as distinct and held that service of notice under section 148 is a jurisdictional precondition. It found that the Revenue's attempt at service through affixture and later through the notice server did not satisfy the required procedure, especially when the assessee's updated address was already available in the return filed for assessment year 2015-16. The Tribunal also found the departmental record regarding service to be unreliable in view of the altered or overwritten endorsement.

Conclusion: The notice was not validly served within time, and jurisdiction for reassessment was not properly assumed.

Issue (ii): whether the reassessment order passed on 19.12.2019 was barred by limitation.

Analysis: On the facts found, the relevant deadline for completion of reassessment was 31.12.2018 as reflected in the Income Tax Portal and accepted on the record. Since valid service was held to have occurred only on 19.02.2019, the reassessment order passed on 19.12.2019 was beyond the permissible time limit. The Tribunal distinguished the precedent relied upon by the Revenue and upheld the finding that the order could not survive limitation.

Conclusion: The reassessment order was time-barred and invalid.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment was annulled for want of valid and timely service of notice, and the additions on merits were left undisturbed only because they became academic after the reassessment was quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Service of notice under section 148 is a mandatory jurisdictional requirement, and reassessment completed without valid service within the prescribed limitation is void.

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