Reassessment limitation under amended section 149(1): time-barred notice for pre-1 April 2021 year could not be revived.

A reassessment notice under section 148 was invalid where it was issued after the limitation period under the unamended section 149(1)(b) for a year falling on or before 1 April 2021. The amended first proviso to section 149(1) bars reopening for such years if the notice could not have been issued under the earlier limitation regime, and the exclusion period and seven-day extension in the fifth and sixth provisos do not revive a notice already hit by that restriction. As the notice was time-barred, the consequential reassessment order could not stand and was quashed.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for the relevant assessment year was barred by limitation under the amended section 149(1), and whether the consequential assessment order could survive.

Analysis: The notice under section 148 was issued after the expiry of the limitation period that existed under clause (b) of section 149(1) as it stood before the Finance Act, 2021. The first proviso to the amended section 149(1) prohibits issuance of a reopening notice for a year beginning on or before 1 April 2021 where such notice could not have been issued earlier under the unamended limitation regime. The exclusion period and seven-day extension contained in the fifth and sixth provisos do not revive a notice that is otherwise hit by the restriction in the first proviso. Once the notice itself is invalid, the assessment made pursuant to it cannot stand.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice was time-barred and invalid, and the consequential assessment order was quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: A reassessment notice for an assessment year falling within the pre-1 April 2021 regime cannot be sustained if it was already time-barred under the unamended section 149(1)(b), and the fifth and sixth provisos to the amended section 149(1) cannot extend the restriction imposed by the first proviso.

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