TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (7) TMI 871
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....llate Tribunal dated 26.03.2010. The Tribunal by the said order has allowed the appeal of the assessee-respondent and has held that the proceedings under Section 147 of the Act for re-assessment of the respondent-assessee are illegal inasmuch as they are based upon the change of opinion. The appeal was admitted on the following question of law:- "Whether the ITAT was correct in law in holding that there was change of opinion (wrongly typed as difference of opinion) and therefore, the action under Section 147 could not be taken, ignoring the changes made in Section 147 of the Act ?" The respondent-assessee filed return for the assessment year 1997-98 and the same was accepted under Section 143(1) of the Act. Even the revised return so f....
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....the question of change of opinion does not arise inasmuch as there was no order of regular assessment under Section 143(3) and that the acceptance of the return under Section 143(1) is in the nature of acknowledgment wherein no opinion is expressed by the Assessing Officer. Secondly, once the objections of the respondent-assessee against the notice for re-assessment have been turned down and have attained finality, it was no longer open for the Department to have gone into the correctness of the re-assessment proceedings. It is acceptable to the parties that there was no order of regular assessment under Section 143(3) of the Act and as such, no opinion on the merits of the return was expressed by the Assessing Officer. The Tribunal in r....
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.... and is not an order of assessment passed by the Assessing Officer. In such a situation, there is no expression of any opinion by the Assessing Officer on the return submitted by the assessee. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, in the present case as no order of assessment had been passed by the Assessing Officer, simply on the basis of intimation contemplated under Section 143(1), it cannot be said that any opinion was expressed by the Assessing Officer, which could have been changed for the purposes of giving notice for re-assessment. Thus, when there was no expression of opinion earlier at any stage by the Assessing Officer, there cannot be a change of opinion in giving notice under Section 148 of the Act as has been hel....