Issuance of assessment notice to nonexistent entity postamalgamation is not curable under Section 292B, favouring taxpayer.

Issuance of assessment notice and order in the name of a nonexistent entity for a period after its amalgamation was held not to be a curable procedural defect under Section 292B; the assessing officer must identify the correct taxable entity when assuming jurisdiction. The court treated notices and the assessment order issued against the amalgamating company for a postamalgamation year as substantive illegality rather than a mere procedural lapse, applied precedent from a Supreme Court decision, and directed relief in favour of the taxpayer whose assessment was void for being issued to a ceased entity.

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Issues: Whether notices, show-cause notices, assessment order and consequential demand and penalty notices for Assessment Year 2020-21 issued and passed in the name of an amalgamating/erstwhile company which ceased to exist on amalgamation are void for want of jurisdiction and not curable under Section 292B of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The petitioner's amalgamation of the transferor company into the petitioner with effect from 01.04.2017 was placed on record and communicated to the revenue in earlier assessment proceedings. For AY 2020-21, notwithstanding the petitioner filing return and participating in assessment proceedings, notices, show-cause notice, the order under Section 143(3) read with Section 144B, demand under Section 156 and penalty notices were issued in the name of the erstwhile company which had ceased to exist post-amalgamation. The legal framework includes the doctrine that an amalgamating/transferor company ceases to exist on sanction of scheme of amalgamation, Section 170 on succession to business, and Section 292B which preserves proceedings affected only by mere mistakes where they are in substance and effect in conformity with the Act. Precedents establish that issuance of jurisdictional notice in the name of a non-existent entity is a substantive illegality and not a curable procedural defect under Section 292B where the basis of jurisdiction is fundamentally at odds with the legal effect of amalgamation. The facts show no contemporaneous record or corrigendum by the assessing authority acknowledging a clerical/technical error; the revenue's reliance on a post-facto explanation of a technical glitch and the correctness of PAN does not cure the fundamental jurisdictional defect.

Conclusion: The notices, show-cause notice, assessment order dated 29.09.2022 under Section 143(3) r/w Section 144B, the consequential demand under Section 156 and the penalty notices issued in the name of the non-existent entity are void and are quashed. The writ petition is allowed in favour of the petitioner (assessee).

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