Section 153C block period must run from receipt of seized material by the other person's Assessing Officer, not the search date.

For a person other than the searched person, the block period under section 153C is reckoned from the date the seized books, documents or assets are received by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer of that other person, not from the date of search in the searched case. Applying that commencement point, assessment year 2012-13 did not fall within the permissible block on the facts reflected in the satisfaction note and notice, so the assessment was without jurisdiction. The Tribunal followed binding precedent on the interpretation of sections 153C and 153A and upheld the relief granted to the assessee; the Revenue's challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether, in proceedings under section 153C of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the block of assessment years is to be computed from the date of receipt of seized material by the Assessing Officer of the other person, and whether assessment year 2012-13 could be brought within such block on the facts of the case.

Analysis: The decision reiterated that the first proviso to section 153C creates a legal fiction under which the relevant starting point for computing the block period is the date on which the seized books, documents or assets are received by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer of the other person, and not the date of search in the case of the searched person. Applying the settled position, the assessment year in question did not fall within the permissible block on the basis of the satisfaction note and notice issued in the assessee's case. The Tribunal followed binding precedent on the interpretation of sections 153C and 153A and accepted that assessment framed outside the statutory framework suffered from a jurisdictional infirmity.

Conclusion: The Revenue's challenge failed, and the relief granted to the assessee by the first appellate authority was upheld.

Final Conclusion: The appeal was dismissed because the assessment could not be sustained under section 153C for the relevant assessment year, the computation of the block period being governed by the date of receipt of seized material by the Assessing Officer of the other person.

Ratio Decidendi: For a person other than the searched person, the block period under section 153C is reckoned from the date of receipt of seized material by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer, and an assessment made by ignoring that statutory commencement point is without jurisdiction.

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