TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (11) TMI 964
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....ssessee in ground no. 1 has challenged the validity of assessment order framed under section 153A r.w.s. 143(3) & 144C(13) of the Income Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") being barred by time and thus the assessment order ought to be quashed. 3. The ld. ARs S/Shri Milin Mehta & Bhavin Marfatia appearing on behalf of the assessee before us had challenged the validity of the assessment order framed under section 153A r.w.s. 143(3) & 144C(13) of the Act on the reasoning that it is barred by limitation. The ld. AR before us represented the sequence of events as under: i. The Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO) passed the order under section 92CA(3) of the Act on 31/10/2016. ii. The Assessing Officer delivered draft assessment order on 23/12/2016. iii. Thereafter the assessee raised the objection to the DRP vide letter dated 23-01-2017 as provided under section 144C(2) of the Act which were disposed off by the ld. DRP vide direction dated 29-9-2017. iv. The AO finally framed the final assessment order under section 153A r.w.s. 143(3) & 144C(13) of the Act dated 29-11-2017. 3.1. As per the ld. AR the provisions of section 144C were not applicable for the year under co....
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.... by approaching to the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP). 5.1. The Hon'ble Madras High Court in the case of M/s. Vedanta Ltd.(supra) has held that the provisions of section 144C inserted by Finance (No.2) Act 2009 are applicable from assessment year 2011-12 onwards only and they would not apply to assessment year 2010-11 or to earlier assessment years. The relevant judgment is extracted below: "19. Coming to the aspect of assumption of jurisdiction under Section 144C, the provisions of Section 144C inserted by Finance (No.2) Act, 2009 set out a new and distinct scheme of assessment separate from regular assessment. The object of insertion of Section 144C has been explained in the Explanatory notes to Finance (No.2) Act, 2009 as follows: '45. Provision for constitution of alternate dispute resolution mechanism 45.1 The dispute resolution mechanism presently in place is time consuming and finality in high demand cases is attained after long drawn litigation till Supreme Court. In order to address the concern of the multi- national companies and to provide mechanism for speedy disposal of their cases so as to attain finality, a new section 144C is inserted in the Income- tax A....
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....such assessee.' 23. Sub-section (2) states that on receipt of the draft order, the assessee shall, within 30 days either file acceptance of the variations or objections to the same before DRP. Subsection (3) states that the Assessing Officer shall complete the assessment on the basis of the draft order, if the assessee intimates acceptance of the variations to him or if no objections are received within 30 days. Sub-section (4) states that, in any event, the Assessing Officer shall complete the assessment by way of final order of assessment to be passed within one month from the end of the month in which either acceptance from the assessee is received, or the period of filing of objections expires. Sub-section (5) onwards deal with the hearing of the objections before the DRP and sub-section (10), states that every direction issued by the DRP shall be binding on the Assessing Officer. Sub-section (13) thereafter states that upon receipt of the directions of the DRP, the Assessing Authority shall pass an order of assessment in conformity with the directions issued. Thus by virtue of insertion of Section 144C, the legislature has put in place a distinct, new scheme of assessment ....
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....he outset stated the general principle applicable in this behalf in the following words: It may be stated at the outset the general principle is that a law which brings about a change in the forum does not affect pending actions unless an intention to the contrary is clearly shown. One of the modes by which such an intention is shown is by making a provision for change over of proceedings from the court or the Tribunal where they are pending to the court or the Tribunal which, under the new law, gets jurisdiction to try them. 7. The Court then observed that once a reference was validly made to the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner he did not lose the jurisdiction to deal with the matter on account of the aforesaid Amendment Act. It pointed out that the Amending Act does not does not contain any provision that the references validly pending before the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner should be returned without passing any final order if the amount of income in respect of which the particulars have been concealed did not exceed Rupees twenty five thousand. The said circumstance, it held, supported the inference drawn by the Court that the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner continued ....
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....f the Act shall be applied which reads as under: Time limit for completion of assessment under section 153A. 76 153B. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 153, the Assessing Officer shall make an order of assessment or reassessment,- (a) in respect of each assessment year falling within six assessment years 76a[and for the relevant assessment year or years] referred to in clause (b) of subsection (1) of section 153A, within a period of twenty-one months from the end of the financial year in which the last of the authorisations for search under section 132 or for requisition under section 132A was executed; XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Provided also that in case where the last of the authorisations for search under section 132 or for requisition under section 132A was executed and during the course of the proceedings for the assessment or reassessment of total income, a reference under sub-section (1) of section 92CA is made, the period available for making an order of assessment or reassessment shall be extended by twelve months: 5.4. In the light of above discussion, we note that admittedly in the present case, the AO has framed the as....