AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 806
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....essment was completed for the block period on 28.03.2013 by the concerned Assessing Officer (AO). The Commissioner of Income Tax (A) partly allowed the assessee's appeal on 14.08.2014. The matter was carried further to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) which remitted the matter back to the AO to complete the assessment de novo. The assessee contends that in fact the concerned AO sought tax effect by re-computing the income under Section 153A of the Act, in effect, following the ITAT's order of 18.02.2016. Relying upon that order, the assessment proceedings were taken up after remand by the AO who completed them on 22.12.2017. Relying upon the Full Bench decision of this Court in Odeon Builders Pvt. Ltd. vs. Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax-4, (2017) 393 ITR 27, it is urged on behalf of the assessees that the impugned order is per se illegal and void. It was contended that apart from the AO's order - made after the ITAT's decision (on 18.02.2016), there is other evidence as well, in the form of reply to the assessee's ITR queries dated 12.03.2018 where the revenue clearly admitted that the order was served by hand to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Departmental Representative) ....
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....retation of the expression "receive" would be when the parties notified of the pronouncement are represented at that time in the open court. When pronounced, both parties are said to receive it. The agency which they choose for transmission to the official or executive component to authorise an appeal is not the concern of the judicial system. 49. Consequently, where the order is common to several appeals, while for the assessee the starting point for limitation will be when the assessee aggrieved by such order first receives a copy thereof; for the Revenue, the date when the Department representative of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial) first receives a copy thereof will be the starting point for limitation for all the appeals. 50. It is, therefore, not possible to accept the submission that till a particular jurisdictional Commissioner of Income-tax or Principal Commissioner of Income-tax has not received the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, the period of limitation for filing an appeal against that order does not commence. Answers to the questions 51. The answers to the questions referred to this Court are answered thus: Question : (i) What is the co....
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....on 254 (3) of the Act, is there an obligation on the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal to send a certified copy of its order to a Commissioner of Income-tax other than the one whose details are given to it during the pendency of the appeal? Will change in the jurisdiction concerning the case of the respondent-assessee to another Commissioner of Income-tax subsequent to the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal have the effect of postponing the time, from which limitation would begin to run in terms of section 260A(2)(a) of the Act, to when such Commissioner of Income-tax receives the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal? Answer : As far as the obligation of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal under Section 254 (3) of the Act is concerned, the said obligation is satisfied once the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal sends a copy of an order passed by it to the assessee as well as to the Principal Commissioner of Income-tax or the Commissioner of Income-tax or even the Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial). The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has to be simply go by the details as provided to it in the memo of parties. If there is a change concerning the jurisdiction of the Commissione....
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....epartmental representative or the Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial) should be taken to be aware of the order. From that point, it is a purely an internal administrative arrangement as to how the Departmental representative or Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial) obtains and further communicates the order to the officer who has to take a decision on filing the appeal. It is possible that immediately after pronouncement, the authorized representative or the Departmental representative or both may apply for a certified copy of the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. In that case, the time taken for the certified copy to be readied for collection by the applicant will be excluded while computing limitation. But here again, if earlier to such date, a copy is received by a party from the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, then such earlier date will be the starting point for limitation. Question : (vi) Whether the receipt of a certified copy of the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial) is sufficient to trigger the commencement of the limitation period under Section 260 A (2) (a) of the Act? Answer : The receipt of a certified....
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....lders (supra) that limitation begins (for any purpose under the Act) from the point of time when the departmental representative receives the copy of a decision or an order of the ITAT. The evidence on record in this case clearly establishes that the concerned DR (a Commissioner ranking officer) nominated by the revenue received a copy of the ITAT order dated 30.03.2016. The Starting point of limitation therefore was 31.03.2016. 6. The next question is whether the non-obstante clause under Section 153 of the Act, which prescribes a specific period of limitation to complete a search assessment for the block period concerned, could override the general period of limitation. In this context, the Court notices that Section 153 of the Act generally talks of various periods of limitation. It prescribes that no order of assessment shall be made either under Section 143 or Section 144 of the Act any time after expiry of twenty one months from the end of the assessment year in which the income was first assessable. The exception carved by way of Section 153(2) - relates to reassessment and states that in cases covered by it, the period is reduced to nine months from any of financial year i....