The court held that the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO)...

The court held that the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) lacked jurisdiction to issue the impugned notices u/s 148, particularly in view of the provisions of Section 151A read with the Central Government's notification dated March 29, 2022. The court observed that the JAO disregarded the orders passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) involving the very amounts in question, which amounted to a travesty of law and nullified the binding effect of the appellate authority's orders. The court criticized the JAO and the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for acting with gross non-application of mind and mechanically according approval for issuing the notices, without considering the relevant materials on record. The court deemed it a fit case to grant relief to the petitioner and deprecated the untenable stand taken by the respondents in disregarding the court's decision in Hexaware Technologies Ltd. The court imposed personal costs of Rs. 25,000 each on the JAO and the Chief Commissioner for their conduct.