Mandatory statutory notice prior to framing an assessment is...

Mandatory statutory notice prior to framing an assessment is required even where a return is filed in response to a notice under reassessment proceedings; if the Assessing Officer takes the filed return as the starting point for computation and acts upon it, pending electronic verification or later submission of a manual verification does not alone invalidate the return. An assessment completed without issuing the mandatory notice under the statutory provision governing notice before assessment is a jurisdictional defect and vitiates the assessment framed under reassessment provisions, resulting in the quashing of the assessment for the relevant year.

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