Invalid Section 148A(b) notice with less than seven days' compliance time vitiates reassessment and penalty proceedings.

A notice under Section 148A(b) of the Income-tax Act is unsustainable where the compliance period granted is less than seven days. Following its earlier Division Bench ruling, the HC held that the foundational defect in the Section 148A(b) notice vitiates the entire reassessment chain. The consequential order under Section 148A(d), the notice under Section 148, the assessment under Sections 147 and 144, and the penalty notices were therefore also unsustainable and could not survive once the original notice was set aside.

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Issues: Whether a notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is unsustainable when the time granted for compliance is less than seven days, and whether the consequential order, reassessment notice, assessment and penalty notices can survive once such notice is set aside.

Analysis: The Court followed its earlier Division Bench decision on the same question and accepted that a notice under Section 148A(b) does not stand where the compliance period is less than seven days. It further held that once the foundational notice is invalidated, the subsequent order under Section 148A(d), the notice under Section 148, the assessment under Sections 147 and 144, and the penalty notices also cannot survive.

Conclusion: The notice under Section 148A(b) was held unsustainable, and all consequential proceedings were held to be unsustainable as well.

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