TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (2) TMI 1149
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....ome for Assessment Year 201617 on 30th November 2016. Petitioner's case was selected for scrutiny assessment vide notice dated 19th September 2017 issued by respondent No.2 under Section 143(2) of the Act. Respondent No.2 passed a draft assessment order dated 26th December 2019 under Section 143(3) read with Section 144C(1) [incorrectly mentioned as Section 144C(13)] making certain additions as proposed by Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO), who had passed an order under Section 92CA(4) of the Act on 29th October 2019 proposing an adjustment of Rs. 375,65,17,639/-. Petitioner filed its objections before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) challenging the validity of the draft assessment order on 24th January, 2020. As per the provisions of sub-section (11) of Section 144C of the Act, the DRP is required to issue directions under Section 144C(5) of the Act within a period of nine months from the end of the month in which the draft assessment order is received by petitioner. Petitioner had received the draft assessment order on 26th December 2019 and, therefore, the DRP had time upto 30th September 2020 to issue directions. 4. On 29th September 2020, a gazette notification was publishe....
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....dated 27th April 2021 and Notification No.74/2021 dated 25th June 2021 to submit that the time-limit to complete assessment has been extended upto 30th September 2021 and since the assessment order has been passed on 30th September 2021, there was nothing illegal about it. 8. Therefore, the short points that we have to consider and decide in this petition are - (a) whether the petitioner's case is covered under the Relaxation Act? and (b) whether the time to complete assessment under Section 144C(13) in petitioner's case could be stated to have been extended till 30th September 2021? 9. Before we proceed further, it will be useful to reproduce the relevant provisions. A. Section 144C of the Act reads as under:- "144C.(1) to (4) * * * * (5) The Dispute Resolution Panel shall, in a case where any objection is received under sub-section (2), issue such directions, as it thinks fit, for the guidance of the Assessing Officer to enable him to complete the assessment. (6) to (11) * * * * (12) No direction under sub-section (5) shall be issued after nine months from the end of the month in which the draft order is forwarded to ....
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....Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 4805(E), dated the 31st December, 2020, the Central Government hereby specifies that,-- (A) where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Income-tax Act) and, - (a) the completion of any action referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Act relates to passing of an order under sub-section (13) of section 144C or issuance of notice under section 148 as per time-limit specified in section 149 or sanction under section 151 of the Income-tax Act, - (i) the 31st day of March, 2021 shall be the end date of the period during which the time-limit, specified in, or prescribed or notified under, the Income-tax Act falls for the completion of such action; and (ii) the 30th day of April, 2021 shall be the end date to which the time- limit for the completion of such action shall stand extended. Explanation.- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that for the purposes of issuance of notice under section 148 as per time-limit specified in section 149 or sanction under section 151 of the Income-tax Act, under this subclause,....
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....5(E), dated the 31st December, 2020, vide number S.O. 966(E) dated the 27th February, 2021 and vide number S.O. 1432(E) dated the 31st March, 2021, respectively (hereinafter referred to as the said notifications), the Central Government hereby specifies for the purpose of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act that, - (A) where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Income-tax Act) and, - (a) the completion of any action, referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, relates to passing of any order for assessment or reassessment under the Income-tax Act, and the time limit for completion of such action under section 153 or section 153B thereof, expires on the 30th day of April, 2021 due to its extension by the said notifications, such time limit shall further stand extended to the 30th day of June, 2021; (b) the completion of any action, referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, relates to passing of an order under sub-section (13) of section 144C of the Income-tax Act or issuance of notice under section 148 as per time-limit specified i....
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....o. 10/2021 dated the 27th February, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii),vide number S.O. 966(E) dated the 27th February, 2021 and No. 20/2021 dated the 31st March, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O 1432(E) dated the 31st March, 2021 and No. 38/2021 dated 27 th April, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 1703(E) dated the 27th April, 2021, (hereinafter referred to as the said notifications), the Central Government hereby specifies for the purpose of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, that, - (A) where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Income-tax Act) and,- (i) the completion of any action, referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, relates to passing of any order ,- (a) for assessment or reassessment under the Income-tax Act, and the time limit for completion of such action under section 153 or section 153B thereof, expires on the 30 th day of June, 2021 ....
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....s the directions under sub-section (5), he has to straightaway complete the assessment and he does not even have to hear the assessee. The Assessing Officer shall simply comply with the directions received from the DRP within one month from the end of the month in which such direction is received. 11. Mr. Mistri, Counsel for petitioner, submitted as under:- (a) The three notifications, on which reliance has been placed to complete the assessment, do not extend the time-limit for respondent No.1 to pass the impugned final assessment order under Section 144C(13) of the Act and, therefore, the order dated 30th September 2021 impugned in this petition is clearly without jurisdiction and beyond the time-limit provided under the Act for completion of the assessment proceedings. (b) Section 3(1) of the Relaxation Act extends the time-limit with respect to an act, for which limitation falls between 20th March 2020 and 31st December 2020 and as the petitioner's case does not fall under Section 3 of the Relaxation Act as the time-limit for passing the final order does not fall within the period between 20th March 2020 and 31st December 2020, the provisions of Section 3(1....
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....al conditions. The Government tried its best to save the citizens including tax-payers and officers of the government departments and hence, the provision should be given a purposive interpretation. (c) Subsequent to the directions issued by DRP on 20th March 2021, the Assessing Officer had to pass the consequential order on or before 30th April 2021. Therefore, the Assessing Officer could have passed the consequential order by 31st March 2021 also. In other words, the Assessing Officer had time from 21st March 2021, having received DRP directions on 20th March 2021, upto 30th April 2021 to pass the consequential order. As per the Notification No.20/2021 of 31st March 2021, the limitation dates were extended to 30th April 2021, thereafter vide Notification No.38/2011 dated 27th April 2021, the date was extended to 30th June 2021 and again it was further extended to 30th September 2021 by Notification No.74/2021 of 25th June 2021. (d) Notification No.74 of 2021 of 25th June 2021 says "for assessment or re-assessment under the Income-tax Act, and the time-limit for completion of such action under Section 153 or Section 153B thereof...". To give purposive interpretat....
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.... Since in this case, the time-limit for completion of assessment was not expiring as of 31st March 2021, in our view, Notification No.20/2021 is not applicable. 17. Coming to the applicability of Notification No.38/2021 issued on 27th April 2021, Clause (A) of the notification provides that where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, and the completion of any action referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Relaxation Act, relates to passing of an order under Section 144C(13) of the Act and the time-limit for completion of such action expires on 30th April 2021 "due to its extension by earlier notifications", such time-limit shall further stand extended to 30th June 2021. The expiry of time-limit for completion of assessment or for passing the order in petitioner's case under Section 144C(13) of the Act on 30th April 2021 was not due to an earlier extension of time-limit by an earlier notification but was on account of the fact that the directions were issued by the DRP on 20th March 2021. As per Section 144C(13) of the Act, an assessing officer has one month from the date of the end of the month in which the directions are received by him to pass the f....
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....erything is in its place. If the precise words used are plain and unambiguous, the courts are bound to construe them in the ordinary sense in their judgments. The words of statute are to be first understood in the natural, ordinary or popular sense and phrases and sentences are construed according to their grammatical meaning, unless that leads to some absurdity or unless there is something in the context or in the object of the statute to suggest to the contrary. The reason for doing so is to give effect to the intention of the Parliament. Therefore, by reading the notification as it stands, and not as suggested by Mr. Suresh Kumar, neither does it lead to any absurdity nor does it suggest anything to the contrary. Therefore, we cannot and we should not read the word 'and' as 'or'. 22. Even if for a moment we hold that Relaxation Act is applicable to petitioner's case, the time-limit provided by Notification No.38/2021 expired on 30th June 2021. Notification No.74/2021, on which respondents have relied upon to submit that time has been extended upto 30th September 2021, specifically excludes Section 144C(13) of the Act. If that also was to be included, Notification No.74/2021 w....