Wrong authority sanction for reassessment vitiates reopening and makes the Section 148 notice and proceedings unsustainable.

Prior approval for reassessment under the Income-tax Act must be obtained from the authority specified by Section 151(ii) where that clause applies; sanction from the wrong authority under Section 151(i) goes to the root of jurisdiction. On the stated facts, the Bombay HC treated the defect as fatal to the reopening after the Section 148A(d) order, and held that the notice under Section 148 and the consequential reassessment proceedings were unsustainable. The writ petition was therefore allowed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment proceedings were vitiated because prior approval under Section 151 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was obtained from the authority under clause (i) instead of the authority under clause (ii), and whether the notice under Section 148 and the consequential orders were liable to be quashed.

Analysis: The challenge to reopening turned on the validity of the sanction granted for issuing the notice under Section 148 after the order under Section 148A(d). The material facts were not disputed, and the issue was treated as covered by the earlier decision of the same Court, which had applied the Supreme Court's ruling that, on the facts of an assessment year of this kind, approval had to be obtained from the authority contemplated by Section 151(ii). Non-compliance with that requirement was held to go to the root of jurisdiction and to invalidate the notice issued under Section 148, with the consequential reassessment proceedings also falling with it.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice and consequential proceedings were invalid for want of sanction from the proper authority, and the writ petition was allowed in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute requires prior approval from a particular specified authority before issuing a notice for reassessment, sanction from an incorrect authority vitiates the jurisdiction to reopen the assessment and renders the notice and consequential proceedings unsustainable.

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