Reassessment limitation under section 148: delayed notice was invalid despite earlier section 148A(b) proceedings.

Reassessment notice under section 148 was held time-barred for assessment year 2015-16 because it was issued after the limitation period preserved by the first proviso to section 149(1)(b). The Tribunal applied its earlier decisions and binding jurisdictional precedent to hold that, for assessment years beginning on or before 01.04.2021, a notice cannot be sustained if it was already barred under the unamended limitation regime. Earlier proceedings under section 148A(b) did not cure the delay in issuing the section 148 notice. As the notice failed on limitation, the reassessment proceedings were vitiated and the remaining grounds did not survive.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment notice issued under section 148 was barred by limitation for the assessment year 2015-16.

Analysis: The notice under section 148 was issued on 25.04.2022, beyond six years from the end of the relevant assessment year. The amended limitation scheme under section 149(1)(b) was applied along with its first proviso, and the Tribunal followed its earlier decisions and the binding jurisdictional precedent that for assessment years beginning on or before 01.04.2021, a notice cannot be issued if it was already time-barred under the unamended regime. The fact that a prior show-cause notice under section 148A(b) had been issued within time did not cure the delay in issuing the notice under section 148. Once the notice under section 148 failed, the reassessment proceedings were vitiated and the remaining grounds did not survive for adjudication.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice was barred by limitation and was liable to be quashed; the assessee succeeded on the jurisdictional challenge.

Ratio Decidendi: For assessment years beginning on or before 01.04.2021, the validity of a reassessment notice under section 148 must be tested against the time limit preserved by the first proviso to section 149(1)(b), and a notice issued after that period is invalid even if section 148A(b) proceedings were initiated earlier.

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