Reassessment limitation under section 148 turns on excluding stayed notice periods and reply time; belated notice is void.

Under the reassessment regime, the limitation for issuing a fresh notice under section 148 had to be computed by excluding the period during which the deemed show-cause notice remained stayed and the further two weeks allowed for response. Applying that approach, the Tribunal found that the surviving balance period had already expired before 25.07.2022, and the additional seven days under the fourth proviso to section 149 did not save the notice. The jurisdictional notice was therefore time-barred and void ab initio, so the reassessment proceedings and consequential assessment orders could not survive.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on 25.07.2022 was barred by limitation under section 149, and whether the reassessment proceedings and the assessment orders could survive.

Analysis: The Tribunal applied the Supreme Court's exposition on the interaction between the deemed notices under the reassessment regime and the time available under the extended limitation framework. It held that, after exclusion of the period during which the deemed show-cause notice remained stayed and the further two weeks allowed for response, only the surviving balance period could be used for issuing the fresh notice under section 148. On the facts, the surviving period had expired before 25.07.2022. Even with the benefit of the additional seven days contemplated by the fourth proviso to section 149, the notice was still beyond time. Since the jurisdictional notice itself was time-barred, the reassessment proceedings and the consequential assessment orders could not stand.

Conclusion: The notice under section 148 dated 25.07.2022 was held to be time-barred and void ab initio, and the reassessment proceedings and assessment orders were quashed in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: In reassessment cases governed by the new regime, the limitation for issuing the section 148 notice must be computed by excluding the stayed period for the deemed show-cause notice and the time allowed for the assessee's reply, and a notice issued beyond the surviving balance period is without jurisdiction and invalid.

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