ITBA transmission date determines reassessment notice issuance, requiring the post-April 2021 show-cause procedure before assessment.

A reassessment notice digitally signed before 1 April 2021 but transmitted through the Department's ITBA system on or after that date is described as issued on the transmission date, rather than its generation or signature date. Where transmission occurred on 1 April 2021, the substituted reassessment framework applies. The notice is to be treated as a show-cause notice under Section 148A(b), requiring disclosure of relied-upon material, consideration of objections, and an order under Section 148A(d) before further action. Assessments completed without that procedure are described as unsustainable, while statutory defences and legal contentions remain open.

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Issues: (i) Whether a notice under Section 148 dated and digitally signed on 31 March 2021, but transmitted through the Department's ITBA email system on 1 April 2021, was issued on 1 April 2021; (ii) whether the notice and consequential assessment were required to be dealt with under the reassessment procedure introduced with effect from 1 April 2021.

Issue (i): Whether the notice was issued on 1 April 2021.

Analysis: The date on which the Department's ITBA email system triggered and dispatched the notice is attributable to the Department. Although the notice was dated and digitally signed on 31 March 2021, the system delivery report established that its transmission was triggered only on 1 April 2021. The date of generation or digital signature was therefore distinct from the date of issuance.

Conclusion: The notice was deemed to have been issued on 1 April 2021.

Issue (ii): Whether the notice and consequential assessment were required to comply with the reassessment procedure introduced from 1 April 2021.

Analysis: A notice issued under the unamended Section 148 after 1 April 2021 was required to be treated, in accordance with the substituted reassessment framework and the directions governing such notices, as a show-cause notice under Section 148A(b). The assessment order passed under Sections 147 and 144B without following that procedure could not stand. The Assessing Officer was required to provide the relied-upon information and material, consider the objections, pass an order under Section 148A(d), and thereafter proceed in accordance with law, while preserving the parties' available statutory defences and contentions.

Conclusion: The assessment order and consequential proceedings were quashed, and the notice was to be treated as a show-cause notice under Section 148A(b) for fresh consideration under the substituted reassessment procedure.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings were reopened for consideration under the applicable post-1 April 2021 procedure, without foreclosing the assessee's statutory defences or the Revenue's legal contentions.

Ratio Decidendi: For a notice generated and digitally signed before 1 April 2021 but transmitted through the Department's ITBA email system on or after that date, the ITBA transmission date is the date of issuance, and the notice must be dealt with under the substituted reassessment procedure.

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