Reassessment notice sanction requirement rendered the notice invalid where approval came from the wrong authority.

A reassessment notice issued more than three years after the end of the relevant assessment year required prior sanction under section 151(ii); approval from the Principal Commissioner instead of the prescribed competent authority was treated as non-compliance with the statutory safeguard. The section 148 notice was therefore invalid in law, and the consequential assessment order could not survive and was quashed.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was invalid for want of approval from the competent authority under section 151, and whether the consequential assessment order could survive.

Analysis: The reassessment notice was issued after more than three years from the end of the relevant assessment year, attracting the requirement of prior sanction from the authority specified in section 151(ii). The approval had been obtained from the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax instead of the Principal Chief Commissioner or other competent authority prescribed by law. In light of the binding principle that the prescribed sanction is a mandatory procedural safeguard before issuance of a notice under section 148, the reassessment action suffered from non-compliance with section 151.

Conclusion: The notice under section 148 was held to be bad in law and invalid, and the consequential assessment order was quashed.

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