Where no return was filed under section 139 within time,...

Where no return was filed under section 139 within time, exemption under sections 11 and 12 could not be claimed for the first time in returns furnished in response to section 148 notices. The ITAT held that the deeming fiction treating a reassessment return as a section 139 return cannot be used to convert reopened proceedings into a vehicle for fresh reliefs not claimed originally. Relying on Sun Engineering Works and the Special Bench in SEW Infrastructure, it held that reopening is meant to assess escaped income, not to entertain new exemption claims raised only after reassessment begins. The Revenue's appeals were allowed and the exemption orders were reversed.

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