Jurisdiction of Assessing Officer: assessment under Section 143(3) without a Section 127 transfer is void and quashed.

Assessment under Section 143(3) framed by an Assessing Officer lacking territorial jurisdiction, absent any valid transfer order under the transfer provision, is without jurisdiction; the Tribunal applied precedents holding that where no statutory transfer is shown and the revenue cannot produce a transfer order (including on RTI), proceedings must be quashed. The jurisdictional objection left undecided by the non-jurisdictional officer and the absence of any transfer order were determinative, and the assessment order dated 15.12.2017 was quashed accordingly.

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Issues: Whether the assessment order framed under Section 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 by an Assessing Officer who did not have jurisdiction (in the absence of any order under Section 127 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 transferring the case) is without jurisdiction and liable to be quashed.

Analysis: The assessee filed the return with the Central Circle-3(1) office and objected within five days to issuance of notice under Section 143(2) by ITO, Ward-43(2) on grounds of lack of jurisdiction and absence of any Section 127 transfer order. The assessing authority proceeded with assessment and passed order under Section 143(3) without disposing of the jurisdictional objection and without producing any Section 127 order; the revenue also failed to produce the transfer order when sought under the Right to Information Act. Judicial precedents dealing with identical factual matrices have held that assessment proceedings conducted by a non-jurisdictional officer, where no valid transfer under the statutory provision is shown, are without jurisdiction and must be quashed; those precedents were applied to the facts and records before the Tribunal.

Conclusion: The assessment order dated 15.12.2017 framed under Section 143(3) by the non-jurisdictional Assessing Officer is without jurisdiction and is quashed; the appeal is allowed on this legal issue in favour of the assessee.

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