TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (9) TMI 688
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.... erred in law and on facts in holding that passing of penalty order in the name of Padampat Gopal Krishna Ramapati Organisation Ltd. cannot be considered as fatal and is curable as per provision of section 292BB of the Act. 2. BECAUSE the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in law and on facts in sustaining the penalty order particularly when the notice issued under section 274 of the Act did not specify the grounds for which penalty was to be imposed. 3. BECAUSE the Ld. CIT(A) has erred in law and on facts in sustaining the imposition of penalty in respect of disallowance of deferred revenue expenditure of Rs. 8,66,280/- as the same are nil in subsequent year i.e. A.Y. 2004-05. 4. BECAUSE the Ld. CIT (A) has erred in confirming the imposition of penalty on erroneous assumption of facts. 5. BECAUSE the order appealed against is contrary to the facts, law and principles of natural justice." 2. Before us, Ld. Counsel submitted that the AO has passed the penalty order in the case of amalgamated company Padampat Gopal Krishna Ramapati Organisation Ltd. and not in the case of the assessee company; hence the same is not a valid order. He submitted that amalgamati....
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....ngs were initiated for wrongly claiming excess business loss and contravention of provisions of S. 94(7) of the Act. 8 24.12.2010 Notice U/s 274 was issued (pg. 38 of PB) in the name of "M/s Ankur Distributors Pvt. Ltd., (since merged with Gahoi Buildwell Ltd. Now known as V3S Infratech Ltd.)" stating as under: " * have concealed the particulars of your income or furnished inaccurate particulars of such income in terms of explanation 1,2,3,4 & 5." 9 05.07.2013 Appeal against merit was partly allowed by Id. CIT(A) wherein disallowance U/s 94(7) was restricted to Rs. 28,51,847 by Id. CIT(A) and no further appeal was filed by the assessee. 10 03.02.2015 Second Notice/Letter for imposition of penalty was issued by the Assessing Officer (pg. 39 of PB). 11 16.03.2015 Penalty order in the name of "M/s Ankur Distributors Pvt. Ltd." was passed by holding that assessee has concealed the particulars of its income and imposed penalty of Rs. 8,83,319/- w.r.t. reduction of the loss claimed of Rs. 29,44,396/- 12 19.09.2016 CIT (A) partly allowed the appeal by confirming the imposition of penalty with respect of reduction of loss of Rs. 28,51,847/-. ....
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....ection 292B. In that case M/s Suzuki Power Train India Limited was amalgamated with M/s Maruti Suzuki India Limited by the order of Hon'ble High Court w.e.f. 1st April 2012 vide order dated 29th January 2013. The AO was informed on 2nd April 2013. AO still issued notice to the erstwhile company, Suzuki Powertrain India Limited and below it mentioned now known as M/s. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and final assessment order was passed in the name of "M/s. Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (amalgamated with Maruti Suzuki India Limited)". The Hon'ble Court after considering the following facts has observed and held as under:- "19. While assessing the merits of the rival submissions, it is necessary at the outset to advert to certain significant facets of the present case: (i) Firstly, the income which is sought to be subjected to the charge of tax for AY 2012-13 is the income of the erstwhile entity (SPIL) prior to amalgamation. This is on account of a transfer pricing addition of Rs. 78.97 crores; (ii) Secondly, under the approved scheme of amalgamation, the transferee has assumed the liabilities of the transferor company, including tax liabilities; (iii)....
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....the assessing officer assumed jurisdiction to make an assessment in pursuance of the notice under Section] 43 (2). The notice was issued in the name of the amalgamating company in spite of the fact that on 2 April 2013, the amalgamated company MSIL had addressed a communication to the assessing officer intimating the fact of amalgamation. In the above conspectus of the facts, the initiation of assessment proceedings against an entity which had ceased to exist was void ab initio. 20. In Spice Entertainment, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court dealt with the question as to whether an assessment in the name of a company which has been amalgamated and has been dissolved is null and void or, whether the framing of an assessment in the name or such company is merely a procedural defect which can be cured. The High Court held that upon a notice under Section 143 (2) being addressed, the amalgamated company had brought the fact of the amalgamation to the notice of the assessing officer. Despite this, the assessing officer did not substitute the name of the amalgamated company and proceeded to make an assessment in the name of a non-existent company which renders it void. This....
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....here the High Court expressly clarified that "the framing of assessment against a non-existing entity/person" is a jurisdictional defect. The Division Bench also relied on the holding in Spice Entertainment that participation by the amalgamated company in proceedings does not cure the defect as "there can be no estoppel in law", to affirm the quashing of the assessment order. 22. In Micron Steels, a notice was issued to Micron Steels Pvt Ltd (original assessee) after it had amalgamated with Lakhanpal Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court upheld the setting aside of assessment orders, noting that Spice Entertainment is an authority for the proposition that completion of assessment in respect of a non-existent company due to the amalgamation order, would render the assessment a nullity. 23. In Micra India, the original assessee Micra India Pvt. Ltd had amalgamated with Dynamic Buildmart (P) Ltd. Notice was issued to the original assessee by the Revenue after the fact of amalgamation had been communicated to it. The Court noted that though the assessee had participated in the assessment, the original assessee was no longer in existence and ....
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....gned by this Court for rejecting the petition for special leave and are stated in the order still the order remains the one rejecting prayer for the grant of leave to appeal. The petitioner has been turned away at the threshold without having been allowed to enter in the appellate jurisdiction of this Court. Here also the doctrine of merger would not apply. But the law stated or declared by this Court in its order shall attract applicability of Article 141 of the Constitution. The reasons assigned by this Court in its order expressing its adjudication (expressly or by necessary implication) on point of fact or law shall take away the jurisdiction of any other court, tribunal or authority to express any opinion in conflict with or in departure from the view taken by this Court because permitting to do so would be subversive of judicial discipline and an affront to the order of this Court. However this would be so not by reference to the doctrine of merger." 27. The submission however which has been urged on behalf of the Revenue is that a contrary position emerges from the decision of the Delhi High Court in Skylight Hospitality LLP which was affirmed on 6 April 2018 by a t....
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....lieve and the approval of the Principal Commissioner. It was in this background that the Delhi High Court held that the case fell within the purview of Section 292B for the following reasons: "18...There was no doubt and debate that the notice was meant for the petitioner and no one else. Legal error and mistake was made in addressing the notice. Noticeably, the appellant having received the said notice, had filed without prejudice reply/letter dated 11.04.2017. They had objected to the notice being issued in the name of the Company, which had ceased to exist. However, the reading of the said letter indicates that they had understood and were aware, that the notice was for them. It was replied and dealt with by them. The fact that notice was addressed to M/s. Skylight Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., a company which had been dissolved, was an error and technical lapse on the part of the respondent. No prejudice was caused." 28. The decision in Spice Entertainment was distinguished with the following observations: "19. Petitioner relies on Spice Infotainment Ltd. v. Commissioner of Service Tax, (2012) 247 CTR 500. 25 Spice Corp. Ltd., the company that had f....
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....iar facts of the case were. Those facts have been noted above. What had weighed with the Delhi High Court was that though the notice to reopen had been issued in the name of the erstwhile entity, all the material on record including the tax evasion report suggested that there was no manner of doubt that the notice was always intended to be issued to the successor entity. Hence, while dismissing the Special Leave Petition this Court observed that it was the peculiar facts of the case which led the court to accept the finding that the wrong name given in the notice was merely a technical error which could be corrected 36 Civil Appeal No. 285 of 2014 and connected cases 37 Special Leave Petition No. 7409 of 2018 27 under Section 292B. Thus, there is no conflict between the decisions in Spice Enfotainment on the one hand and Skylight Hospitality LLP on the other hand. It is of relevance to refer to Section 292B of the Income Tax Act which reads as follows: "292B. No return of income, assessment, notice, summons or other proceeding, furnished or made or issued or taken or purported to have been furnished or made or issued or taken in pursuance of any of the pr....
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....ble from the successor and the successor shall be entitled to recover from the predecessor any sum so paid. (4) Where any business or profession carried on by a Hindu undivided family is succeeded to, and simultaneously with the succession or after the succession there has been a partition of the joint family property between the members or groups of members, the tax due in respect of the income of the business or profession succeeded to, up to the date of succession, shall be assessed and recovered in the manner provided in section 171, but without prejudice to the provisions of this section. Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, "income" includes any gain accruing from the transfer, in any manner whatsoever, of the business or profession as a result of the succession" Now, in the present case, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent submitted that SPIL ceased to be an eligible assessee in terms of the provisions of Section 144C read with clause (b) of sub section 15. Moreover, it has been urged that 29 in consequence, the final assessment order dated 31 October 2016 was beyond limitation in terms of Section 153(1) read with Sectio....
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.... omitted to state that it was served in that capacity. Following these two decisions, this Court in Jai Prakash Singh held that an omission to serve or any defect in the service of notices provided by procedural provisions does not efface or erase the liability to pay tax where the liability is created by a distinct substantive provision. The omission or defect may render the order irregular but not void or illegal. Jai Prakash Singh and the two decisions that it placed reliance upon were evidently based upon the specific facts. Jai Prakash Singh involved a situation where the return of income had been filed by one of the legal representatives to whom notices were issued under Section 142(1) and 143(2). No objection was raised by the legal representative who had filed the return that a notice should also to be served to other legal representatives of the deceased assessee. No 40 (1943) 11 ITR 202 (Bombay) 31 objection was raised before the assessing officer. Similarly, the decision in Maharaja of Patiala was a case where the notice had been served on the legal representative, the successor Maharaja and the Bombay High Court held that it was not void merely because it omitt....