Electronic reassessment notice issuance turns on actual dispatch, not signature date, for limitation under income-tax law

For electronically issued reassessment notices, statutory issuance is complete only when the notice is actually dispatched beyond the Department's control, not when it is merely signed or internally generated. The Telangana HC applied this distinction to Section 148 notices sent through the Income Tax Business Application portal and held that the date of dispatch, not the printed date or signature date alone, determines compliance with Sections 148 and 149 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Because the notices left the portal on or after 01.04.2021, they were treated as issued beyond limitation and were invalid under the amended reassessment regime.

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Issues: Whether notices under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 were validly issued within limitation when they were signed on 31.03.2021 but left the Income Tax Business Application portal and were dispatched only on or after 01.04.2021.

Analysis: The governing question was whether mere preparation or digital signing of a reassessment notice is enough to satisfy the statutory requirement that the notice be "issued" within the prescribed period. The Court followed the settled distinction between signing of a notice and its actual issuance, and held that in the case of electronic notices, issuance is complete only when the notice is despatched so as to go beyond the control of the originating authority. For electronically generated notices, the date of dispatch from the Income Tax Business Application portal, and not the date printed on the notice or the date of signature alone, determines compliance with Sections 148 and 149 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Since the notices in the batch left the portal on or after 01.04.2021, they fell beyond the limitation period and could not survive. The Court also aligned the consequence with the post-01.04.2021 reassessment regime under the amended law.

Conclusion: The notices were held to be time-barred and invalid; the issue was answered in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: For a reassessment notice issued electronically, statutory issuance is complete only when the notice is actually dispatched beyond the control of the Department, and not upon mere signing or internal generation of the notice; if such dispatch occurs after the limitation period, the notice is barred by limitation.

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