2018 (2) TMI 673
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....r Section 158BC r.w.s 144 of the Act on the ground that the notice issued u/s. 158BD of the Act was bad in law due to inordinate delay in recording satisfaction ?" [B] "Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Appellate Tribunal was right in deleting the addition of Rs. 36,67,115/= made under the head "undisclosed income" for the block period 1992-93 to 2001-02 and upto 17th April 2001 ?" Briefly stated, the facts are that certain search and seizure operations were carried out against one Jitendra H Modi on 17th April 2001. The assessment order under Section 158BD of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ["the Act" for short] was passed against the searched person on 30th April 2003. Till this date, the Assessing Officer had....
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....ported in 362 ITR 673, held that the satisfaction which was recorded nearly nine months after passing of the order under Section 158BC of the Act did not satisfy the parameters laid down by the Apex Court in the said judgment. Resultantly, the Tribunal terminated the proceedings of block assessment on the ground of undue delay in recording the satisfaction by the Assessing Officer of the searched person. This judgment of the Tribunal is challenged in the present Appeal. As is well known, the Supreme Court in the case of Calcutta Knitwears [Supra] considered the question of recording of satisfaction against the person other than the searched person in the context of provisions contained in Section 158BC and 158BD of the Act. The cases befor....
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....d person under Section 158BC. Further, the interpretation placed by the Courts below by reading into the plain language of Section 158BE [2](b) such as to extend the period of limitation to recording of satisfaction note would run counter to the avowed object of introduction of Chapter to provide for cost effective, efficient and expeditious completion of search assessments and avoiding or reducing long drawn proceedings. 44. In the result, we hold that for the purpose of Section 158BD of the Act, a satisfaction note is sine qua non and must be prepared by the assessing officer before he transmits the records to the other assessing officer who has jurisdiction over such other person. The satisfaction note could be prepared at either of t....
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....sment under Section 158BD which is two years from the end of the month in which the notice for such purpose was served on such person, who happen to be other than the searched person. It was in this background the Supreme Court had culled out the ratio, as reproduced in para 44 of the judgment. Thus, even if such satisfaction note were to be recorded after completion of the proceedings under Section 158BC, the same has to be done immediately thereafter. The term 'immediately' has not been defined nor is it possible to quantify it in absolute terms. In any case, period close to nine months for completion of the proceedings under Section 158BC of the Act, without there being any limiting factor on the Assessing Officer to have recorde....