2017 (8) TMI 182

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....tition is to the refusal of the Assessing Officer passing a speaking order on the objections raised by the petitioners after filing the return and obtaining reasons for the intended reopening of the assessment in terms of section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. 4. Mr. S. R. Rivankar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, has pointed out that the petitioners were served with a notice under section 147 of the Income-tax Act on March 3, 2016. The petitioners thereafter submitted their returns and sought reasons for such action and, accordingly, reasons were provided to the petitioners somewhere on August 9, 2016. The petitioners thereafter on December 6, 2016 raised objections to the intended reopening based on the reasons submitted....

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....shed and set aside. 5. On the other hand, Ms. Linhares, learned counsel appearing for the respondents, submits that the assessment order has already been passed and the petitioners have an alternate remedy to challenge the assessment order before the learned Tribunal. Learned counsel further pointed out that the contention of the petitioners that they had raised objections on December 6, 2016 to the intended reopening is totally misplaced as, according to the learned counsel, no such objections were raised but only submissions were advanced which cannot take the place of objections as permitted in terms of the judgment of the apex court. Learned counsel further pointed out that though there is no separate speaking order dealing with the ob....

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....osed in these proceedings, the Assessing Officer has to dispose of the objections, if filed, by passing a speaking order, before proceeding with the assessment in respect of the abovesaid five assessment years." 7. On going through the observations of the apex court, it is clearly stated therein that the Assessing Officer has to pass a speaking order on the objections raised by the assessee. In the present case, there is no speaking order passed by the Assessing Officer dealing with the objections raised by the petitioner. The contention of the learned counsel appearing for the respondents-Revenue that no such objections were raised, cannot be accepted. In fact, on perusal of the communication addressed by the petitioner to the Assessing O....

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....ct as specified by the apex court in the said judgment, we find that further proceedings by the Assessing Officer to proceed to pass an assessment order, cannot be sustained and deserves to be quashed and set aside. 9. In fact, the Andhra Pradesh High Court in a judgment reported in the case of Kohinoor Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd. v. Deputy CIT [2016] 389 ITR 493 (T & AP) has observed at paras 10 and 11 thus (page 497) : "In the light of the above developments, a preliminary objection is taken by Sri Narasimha Sarma, learned senior standing counsel for the Department, on the basis of the decisions of the Supreme Court in CIT v. Chhabil Dass Agarwal [2013] 357 ITR 357 (SC) ; [2014) 1 SCC 603 and Ess Kay Engineering Co. P. Ltd. v. CIT [2001] 247 ....