2015 (5) TMI 871

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....ssessing Officer re-assessing the income of the assessee in respect of the Assessment Year 2008-2009. 2. When this matter came up for hearing on the first occasion, i.e., 19.08.2014, we had recorded that the learned counsel for the petitioners had raised two points in this petition. The first point was that the petitioners came to know, after the re-assessment order, that the purported reasons for initiating reassessment proceedings had been recorded after the issuance of notice under Section 148. It was submitted that the clear position in law is that the reasons have to be recorded prior to the issuance of notice under Section 148. The second point urged by the learned counsel for the petitioners was that the objections furnished by th....

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....een recorded bears the date 19.09.2012. The said date is printed. It is, first of all, inconceivable that when a document is being typed on or before 30.08.2012 (the date on which the notice under Section 148 was issued) that a future date of 19.09.2012 would be typed. Secondly, what is even more shocking is the fact that the printed date 19.09.2012 has been corrected in hand to read 18.09.2012. In other words, if there was a mistake in the printing of the date, the same has been corrected to read 18.09.2012. Therefore, it cannot be said that the date mentioned in the reasons, i.e., 18.09.2012 was an inadvertent mistake. The date had been consciously corrected. That being the position, the factual situation is that the reasons were recorded....

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....itled to file objections to the issuance of notice and the Assessing Officer is bound to dispose of the same by passing a speaking order. These are specific directions given by the Supreme Court in all cases where notices under Section 148 of the said Act are issued. Surely, the Assessing Officer could not have construed these specific directions to be a mere empty formalities or dead letters? There is a strong logic and purpose behind the directions issued by the Supreme Court and that is to prevent high-handedness on the part of Assessing Officers and to temper any action contemplated under Section 147 of the said Act by reason and substance. In fact, even Section 148(2) stipulates that the Assessing Officer shall, before issuing any noti....

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....es that the Assessing Officer shall, before issuing any notice under this section, record his reasons for doing so. In view of this provision, no dispute was raised before us about the procedure contemplated under this provision. From a bare perusal of section 148 of the Act, it is clear as crystal that the Assessing Officer is obliged to record reasons before issuing notice under section 148 of the Act...." (underlining added) 6. The decision sought to be relied upon by Mr Madan on behalf of the Revenue in the case of Adobe Systems Software Ireland Ltd. v. Assistant Dirctor of Income Tax, 2014(7) AD 244, is not at all relevant for the present discussion. That was a case which dealt with the furnishing of the reasons to the assessee. ....