TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (10) TMI 379
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.... and "Saint Mary's Model High School". A search u/s 132 of the Act was carried out on 29.1.1999 in the premises of "Saint Mary's College Education" as well as the residential premises of members of the society including Sri K. Raj Kumar, member of the society. During the search and seizure operations certain incriminating material was found and seized indicating the undisclosed income. The assessee also did not file the application in Form No.10A for registration u/s 12A and also the return of income till the date of search. The assessing officer ('AO' in short) had issued the notice u/s 158BC of the Act to "Saint Mary's College of Education" on 25.5.1999, one of the arms of the society. In response the notice issued u/s 158BC, the assessee filed the return of income for the block period in the name of "Saint Mary's Educational Society" on 02.08.1999 and the assessment order u/s 143(3) r.w.s. 158BC of the Act was passed on 30.01.2001 in the name of "Saint Mary's College of Education" and assessed the income for the block period at Rs. 99,86,408/-. The assessee went on appeal before the CIT(A) objecting the assessment made in the name of "Saint Mary's College of Education" instead o....
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....recognition of Minority Educational Institution dated 7.9.1995 issued by Commissioner & Director of School Education, Dept. of Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh. 7.1 From the above documentary evidences, it is very clear that the appellant college is nothing but a wing/extension of St. Mary's Educational Society. It is pleaded that all the above documentary evidences were produced before the Assessing Officer as well, however, the same were not considered by the Assessing Officer and the A.O., has treated the appellant college as a AOP. As could be seen from the documentary evidences listed above, which were perused by me, it is very clear that the appellant college is only an extension of the Society and does not have a separate legal entity distinct from the Society. Therefore, in my opinion, the Assessing Officer is not justified in making the assessment in the hands of the appellant college without taking cognizance of the existence of the Society." 3. Aggrieved by the order of the Ld. CIT(A), the assessee went on appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal(ITAT) and the Hon'ble ITAT in its appeal no.23/Vizag/2002 dated 19.06.2009 annulled the assessment passed ....
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....of the CIT(A) annulling the assessment. Since the assessment has been annulled, we find no justification to deal with the issues on merit as no specific arguments were advanced by both the parties." 4. Subsequently, the A.O. has issued the notice u/s 158BD of the Act in the name of the assessee society on 15.11.2010 u/s 158BD of the Act, which is challenged by the assessee in this appeal. The assessment was completed u/s 158BA r.w.s. 158BD of the Act for the block period from 1989-90 to 29.1.1999 by order dated 20.11.2012 on total income of Rs. 1,24,79,510/-. 5. Aggrieved by the order of the A.O., the assessee went on appeal before the CIT(A) and challenged the validity of issue of notice u/s 158BD of the Act after 11 ½ years from the date of the search. The CIT(A) has upheld the notice observing that there is no mandatory time limit fixed for issue of notice u/s 158 BD of the Act. For the sake of convenience and clarity we extract the relevant paragraph of the Ld. CIT(A) as under: "5.3 I have considered the submissions made. I find that the AO has discussed the background for issue of notice u/s 158BD in the impugned assessment order as under: Issue of notice u/....
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....rch operation show undisclosed income relating to 'any other person' other than the person in respect of whom search was made u/s.132 of the I.T. Act. As the search warrant is not in the name of the assessee-society, (which was not in dispute), the assessee-society would fall in the category of 'any other person'. Certain incriminating materials have been seized relating to the assessee-society during the search and in relation thereto certain disclosure has been made u/s.132(4) of the I.T.Act. Thus the conditions stipulated in section 158BD is satisfied. 5.5 The AR argued that the notice u/s 158BC and 158BD has been issued on the same person and is not permissible. I am not able to agree to this contention. The notice u/s 158BC was issued to St. Mary's College of Education and not to the assessee i.e. St. Mary's Educational Society. It is for this reason that the assessment made on St. Mary's College of Education in the status of AOP was annulled. It was held that the St. Mary's College of Education, though a wing of the society is not the same entity as the assessee society. In view of such a legal position upheld by the Hon'ble ITAT the argument raised....
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....for issue of notice u/s 158BD of the Act. By any means, the notice u/s 158BD of the Act is time barred by limitation. Ld. A.R. relied on the Hon'ble orders of the High Court of Delhi in the case of CIT Vs. Bharat Bhushan Jain and others reported in 138 DTR (Del) 97 and argued that satisfaction recorded more than a year after completion of assessment of the searched person is considered to be not contemporaneous for the assessment proceedings and argued that notice issued in the assessee's case is beyond the time limit mentioned in the Income Tax and required to be quashed. 7. On the other hand, the Ld. D.R. relied on the orders of the lower authorities. 8. We have heard both the parties, perused the material available on record and gone through the orders of the authorities below. In this case, search u/s 132 of the Act was carried out on 29.01.1999 and the assessments were framed in the name of Saint Mary's College of Education, which were annulled by the appellate authorities by an order dated 19.06.1999 of ITAT, Visakhapatnam. The A.O. issued notice the u/s 158BD of the Act in the case of the assessee on 15.10.2010 i.e. after 11 years 9 months. As per the provisions of sec....
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....completion of assessments u/s 158BC. Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High court [2012] 20 taxmann.com 575 (Punjab & Haryana) held that notice under section 158 BD necessarily has to be initiated before completion of the Block assessments. For ready reference we reproduce relevant part of the Hon'ble High court order as under: 7. Section 158BE of the Act prescribes the time limit for framing of assessments under sections 158BC and 158BD of the Act. The Assessing Officer of the person against whom action under section 132 or 132A of the Act has been taken, is the Assessing Officer who initiates the proceedings under section 158BD of the Act by recording satisfaction that any undisclosed income belongs to such other person so as to take action under section 158BD of the Act against that person. The Act nowhere specifically prescribes any time limit or limitation for initiation of proceedings under section 158BD of the Act or for recording of satisfaction before taking action under that provision. The plain and reasonable construction that can be placed on the aforesaid provision would be that the recording of satisfaction for taking action against any other person under section 158BD of....