Limitation for reassessment notice under section 148 turned on the old six-year limit, making the notice time-barred.

The amended limitation regime under section 149(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with the first proviso preserving the earlier outer limit for assessment years before 2021-22, required the notice period to be tested against the pre-amendment six-year limit. For assessment year 2015-16, that limit expired on 31.03.2022. A notice under section 148 issued on 01.04.2022 was therefore beyond time, and the third proviso could not save it because the notice had already failed the threshold requirement of timeliness. The reassessment founded on that notice was invalid and the addition was deleted.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued under section 148 dated 01.04.2022 for assessment year 2015-16 was barred by limitation, and whether the reassessment based on that notice was liable to be quashed.

Analysis: The applicable law was the amended limitation regime under section 149(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with the first proviso preserving the earlier outer limit for assessment years prior to 2021-22. The relevant assessment year ended on 31.03.2016, so the six-year period under the old regime expired on 31.03.2022. The notice under section 148 was issued on 01.04.2022, after the expiry of that period. The exclusion under the third proviso was held inapplicable because the notice itself did not survive the threshold requirement of being within the permissible time limit. The reassessment could therefore not be sustained.

Conclusion: The notice under section 148 dated 01.04.2022 was held to be time-barred and invalid, and the reassessment proceedings founded on it were quashed with the addition deleted.

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