Search assessment under section 153A overrides reassessment under sections 147 and 148 for covered years

Once a search under section 132 is initiated, section 153A applies with overriding effect over sections 147 and 148 for the covered years. The Assessing Officer must proceed under the search assessment framework and cannot validly invoke reassessment machinery for those years. On that basis, the notice under section 148 and the consequential reassessment orders were held to be without jurisdiction and invalid.

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Issues: Whether reassessment proceedings under sections 147 and 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be initiated after a search under section 132 had already taken place, when the case was covered by section 153A.

Analysis: A search under section 132 had been conducted before issuance of the notice under section 148. The legal position applied was that section 153A is triggered on initiation of search and operates with a non obstante clause overriding sections 147 and 148. For the years covered by section 153A, the Assessing Officer was required to proceed under that provision and could not validly invoke the reassessment machinery under sections 147 and 148. The reassessment notices and the consequent orders were therefore inconsistent with the statutory scheme and suffered from a jurisdictional defect.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice under section 148 and the consequential orders under sections 147/143(3) were invalid and without jurisdiction; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings were quashed because the search assessment framework under section 153A displaced recourse to sections 147 and 148 for the covered years.

Ratio Decidendi: Once a search under section 132 is initiated for a covered period, the Assessing Officer must proceed under section 153A, and reassessment under sections 147 and 148 is not maintainable for those years.

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