2019 (7) TMI 1689
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....l: "1. The Ld. CIT(A) ought to have appreciated that as per the decision of Hon'ble Special Court dated 30.04.2010 in MP No. 41 of 1999, the assets under consideration and the consequential income belongs to Late Shri Harshad S. Mehta and hence the income assessed by the Assessing Officer ought to have been taxed in the hands of Late Shri Harshad S. Mehta and not in the hands of the appellant. 2. The Ld. CIT(A) has erred in law and in facts in passing order without complying with the principles of natural justice. 3. The Ld. CIT(A) has erred in law and in facts in confirming the addition of Rs. 11,10,000/- on account of alleged unexplained deposit in bank account. 4. The Ld. CIT(A) ought to have appre....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... validity of reopening of assessment before the Ld. CIT(A) but the same was not pressed. Now assessee by raising the additional ground seeks to raise this issue before the Tribunal. The Ld. Counsel of the assessee submitted that the said ground was not taken inadvertently while filing the appeal before the Tribunal. The Ld. A.R. stated that the said ground is a legal ground which challenges the jurisdiction of the AO in initiating the reassessment proceedings and passing reassessment order and goes to the root of the matter and may be admitted/. The ld counsel relied on the following decisions in defense of his arguments: 1. National Thermal Power Corporation vs. CIT (229 ITR 386 SC) 2. Jute Corporation of India vs. CIT [1....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ties and perusing the material on record, we observe that the issue raised by the assessee in the additional ground of appeal is purely legal and technical in nature challenging the jurisdiction of the AO to initiate the reassessment proceedings and consequently framing the assessment order which though challenged before the Ld. CIT(A) but not pressed during the course of hearing. We are of the considered view that the issue as raised by the assessee by way of additional ground is a legal issue which does not require any further verification of facts or record and has to be admitted for adjudication. We do not find any merit in the objections raised by the Ld. D.R. that this is second round of litigation and this issue was not raised in the....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....valid and void. The Ld. A.R. submitted that assessee has requested the AO on numerous occasions vide letter dated 19.04.1999, 02.03.2001, 30.05.2018 and 01.05.2019 to provide copies of reasons recorded, however, the request of the assessee went unheeded till date. The Ld. A.R. drew the attention of the Bench to the above letters pointing out that the assessee has specifically requested for supply of reasons recorded for reopening the assessment. The Ld. A.R. submitted that these facts were never denied by the Ld. D.R. at the time of hearing and thus it can be presumed that AO has not recorded any reason for reopening the assessment and on this count itself the notice under section 148 of the Act and consequent assessment order may be quashe....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ed assessment and thus merely because of return of income is not filed it can not be a reason to reopening the assessment. The Ld. A.R. also distinguished the decision of the Apex Court referred to by the Ld. D.R. The Ld. A.R. also submitted that there were some practical difficulties which were beyond the control of the assessee as to why the income tax return could be filed before the AO. The Ld. A.R. submitted that even after the completion of the assessment, the reasons were not supplied to the assessee. The Ld. A.R. also submitted that if the arguments of the Ld. D.R. qua non supplying of reasons on the ground that AO has not filed any return of income is accepted it would give blanket power to re-open the assessment in all the cases w....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... section 148 due to the fact that all the records of the assessee were seized by the various government agencies and assessee was not having any access to such records at the relevant point of time. This fact was brought to the notice of the AO. Thereafter, the assessee requested by various letters dated 19.04.1999, para 5, 02.03.2001 para 9, during course of the assessment proceedings to supply the reasons but AO did not supply any reasons recorded for re-opening. Even after completion of the assessment, the assessee again requested vide letter dated 30.05.2018 and 01.05.2019 to supply copy of reasons but some were not supplied to the assessee. In our opinion, once it has established that assessee has not been supplied copy of reasons reco....
TaxTMI