TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (4) TMI 1372
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....I, Ahmedabad ['CIT(A)'] dated 18/03/2015 arising in the matter of respective assessment orders passed by the Assessing Officer ('AO') under s. 153A r.w.s.143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ('the Act'). The assessee has also filed cross objections in the respective appeals alleging jurisdictional defect in the assessment order so passed. 2. In the Revenue's appeals, the assessee has raised a common ground in its cross objection memo whereby the assessee has challenged the jurisdiction usurped by the AO under s.153A of the Act towards additions/disallowances made in the consequent assessment proceedings owing to search operations. In view of the preliminary objection of the assessee which seeks to put question mark over the legitimacy of t....
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....s made to the decision of the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Pr.CIT vs. Devangi [2017] 394 ITR 184 (Guj.) for the proposition that only undisclosed income and undisclosed assets detected during search can be brought to tax under s. 153A of the Act. The Revenue is not entitled to make additions/disallowances unrelated to or unconnected with incriminating material found in the course of search where the assessments were not pending and stood completed on the date of search. The learned AR further submitted that the narrower sweep of proceedings under s.153A of the Act has also been fortified by the co-ordinate bench of Ahmedabad Tribunal in case of Priya Holding (P.) Ltd. vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax [2018] 90 taxmann.c....
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....condition that the additions/disallowances must have some bearing with the incriminating material detected in the course of search. The scope of assessment under s.153A of the Act in respect of concluded assessment is thus narrower in its sweep as held in long line of judicial precedents including the decision rendered by the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in Devangi (supra). The narrower spectrum of assessment under s.153A of the Act was also narrated by coordinate bench in Priya Holding (supra). It will be apt to reproduce the relevant operative para of the decision of the co-ordinate bench in Priya Holding (P.) Ltd. (supra): "6. We have carefully perused the orders of the authorities below and examined the merits of legal contention....
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....ssment years were filed prior to the search in the normal course suo motu incorporating the items of income/expenditure which are subject matter of considerations in the assessment framed under s.153A of the Act. The returns for various assessment orders in question so filed in ordinary course were accepted under s.143(1) of the Act and/or assessed under s.143(3) of the Act and as such no assessment was eventually pending on the date of initiation of search which may get abated in consequence of search. Accordingly, we are of the view that various additions/disallowances made by the AO are clearly beyond the scope of authority vested under s.153A of the Act owing to absence of any incriminating material or evidence deducted as a re....