TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (4) TMI 855
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....dual and filed his return of income on 31st March, 2010, declaring income of Rs. 1,86,830/-. In this case, information was obtained by the AO that the assessee has sold immovable property amounting to Rs. 55,00,000/-. To verify the transaction, information was called u/s 133(6) vide letters dated 15.05.2016 and 05.02.2016. Since, no reply was received from the side of the assessee, the AO reopened the case u/s 147 of the Act after recording the reasons and accordingly notice u/s 148 was issued to the assessee in the address given in the transfer deed of the property, wherein, the assessee had given his address as Vijay Bathla S/o- Sh. P.D. Bathla resident of 1045, Sector-37, Noida, Dist. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. GPA of Gen. V.K. Singh S/o- S.N. Singh and Smt. Meena Singh R/o-21, Akbar Road New Delhi. Subsequently, the AO issued notice u/s 148 dated 15.11.2016 to E-46, College Line. P.O. Bengali Market, New Delhi 110001 fixing the case for 23.11.2016. On 23.11.2016, the ld. Counsel for the assessee filed a letter raising objection to the issuance of notice u/s 148 for the following reasons:- 1. This is the first notice that the assessee has received and no notice prior to notice da....
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....B wing could only communicate the name and the address of the appellant, as provided by appellant himself in the document registered with the registering Authorities in respect of property deal. Besides, the name and address, other information such as the amount of transaction and the date of transaction was also communicatea by CIB wing to AO. As stated above that at the time of registering authority providing information to CIB wing and in turn CIB wing providing information to ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida, the PAN number of the appellant was not available with any of these authorities. 5.2. At this stage, before the specific facts involved in the case of appellant are presented and analysed, it is appropriate to discuss the methodology and functioning of CIB wing of department and the further action which the concerened AO can possibly take in humanly possible manner, within the constraint placed on him, on account of fact that the appellant himself does not provide the relevant information to statutory authorities, which otherwise the appellant is duty bound to provide. 5.2.1. The CIB wing of the department collects such information from the offices of Sub Registrars, regarding sa....
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....s taken, only after that, depending upon the reply submitted by such a person before the AO, the AO can take the next step. 5.2.5. First situation is that the person responds to the queries of AO and accepts the jurisdiction of the AO, then AO may easily proceed further. Second situation is that the person responds to the queries of AO with necessary documentary support that AO who issued the query letter is not the jurisdictional AO as the person claim himself to be the resident of some other area, other than the area on which the present AO has jurisdiction, the present AO may then transfer the case of appellant to the jurisdictional AO. Third situation is that the query letter issued by the AO is not responded at all. In such a situation, AO has absolutely no other way other than making a prima facie belief that income of such a person has escaped assessment and also that he is the jurisdictional AO. 5.3. Having discussed the above methodology and working of the various wings of department, I now proceed to discuss, as to under which of the above stated three situations, the case of the appellant is failing. 5.3.1. In the instant case of the appellant, initially AO receive....
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....ida ie. as provided by CIB wing to ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida. However this notice remained uncomplied with. 5.3.5. Subsequently, AO,ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida came into possession of another address of the appellant and a letter dated 15.11.2016 was sent at this new address at E-46, College Line. P.O. Bengali Market, New Delhi 110001. This turned out to be the correct address of the appellant and the appellant responded to this letter by raising following objections before ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida. 1. This is the first notice that the assessee has received and no notice prior to notice dated 15.11.2016 has been received by him. 2. That the notice is bad in low as notice is with jurisdiction. 3. That he Is filing his regular return of Income in Delhi and he has filed his return for the A Y. 2009-10 at Delhi. 4. That the notice u/s 148 is out of jurisdiction. 5. That he has not purchased any property for a consideration of Rs. 55,00,000/-. 5.3.6. Subsequently, ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA issued a show cause dated 21.11.2016, requesting the assessee to cooperate in the proceedings, file his return in response to notice u/s 148 and that in the absence of the same Rs. 55,00,000/- would be ....
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.... was responded, though only by way of raising various objections, was also not provided by the appellant to ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA but was collected by him through his own efforts. As soon as ITO Ward 2(5j, NOIDA was informed by the appellant himself vide his letter dated 29.11.2016 that the jurisdictional AO of the appellant was not him but ITO, 44(1 j, New Delhi, the case records were transferred by ITO Ward 2(51. NOIDA to ITO Ward 44(1), New Delhi. 7. In view of these circumstances, the question arises : can the action of ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA be held invalid, on the following specific facts of the case that firstly, the Issue of notice u/s 148 by ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA, at the only address available in the records of ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA, particularly when he was not even having the PAN number of the appellant so as to gather the address of the appellant as per PAN database and moreever, the address available in the records of ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA was provided by the appellant himself before registering authorities, which was in turn communicated by registering authorities to CIB wing of department, who in turn communicated the same to ITO Ward 2(5), NOIDA and (ii) ITO Ward 2(5), ....
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....se of these appellate proceedings, where it has been mentioned that notice was sent at the address available in the transfer deed of property. 10. In view of above-stated facts and circumstances of the case, the Ground raised by the appellant is also not acceptable that the notice u/s 148 dated 29.03.2016 was never received by him. The notice was sent by the then jurisdictional AO, ie. ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida, who happened to hold jurisdiction based upon the address of the appellant available in his records, which had been provided by the appellant himself in the records of registering authorities. The appellant had not provided his PAN number in the records of registering authorities, for the reasons best known to him, possibly to avoid the proceedings of department and if caught., later on raise futile objections to the validity of assessment order. The then jurisdictional AO, ie. ITO, Ward 2(5), Noida had sent notice u/s 148 correctly at the address provided by the appellant in the transfer deed, the notice was sent by registered post and this notice never came back unserved. Consequently, this Ground of appeal is dismissed. 11. In view of above, I hold that ITO Ward 2(5), NOI....
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....ne of the witness to the deal is appellant's wife herself. This situation rules out any possibility of appellant's wife being the owner of the property, since, had she been the owner, she would have certainly objected to such transfer and would not have appointed herself as witness to the deal. Accordingly, AO has correctly held that the appellant's wife was never the owner of the property. In addition to it, AO has also referred to the ITRs filed by the appellant and his wife for AY 2009-10. AO has categorically observed that neither the appellant nor his wife has declared any long term capital gains in their respective returns of income. Accordingly, AO's findings are absolutely correct in holding that appellant and his wife were involved in a sort of conspiracy so that both the appellant and his wife could be saved from liability of being assessed to tax for long term capital gains earned on sale of property. 14.3. AO is also correct in observing that appellant and his wife had intentionally tried to evade taxes. While the agreement to sale at the time of purchase of property was executed in favour of the wife of the appellant, the transfer deed at the time of ....
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.... 2) That the Hon'ble Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has further erred in law as much as on the facts of the case by confirming the aforesaid addition of Rs. 44,09,836/- as made by the learned Assessing Officer without appreciating the fact that the learned Assessing Officer did not assume the jurisdiction to complete the assessment proceedings as the initial notice dated 29th March, 2016 issued by the learned Income Tax Officer, Ward 2(5), Noida was not served upon the appellant till the completion of assessment proceedings and even till date and also without appreciating the facts that the appellant had filed an Affidavit regarding the same before the learned Assessing Officer. In the absence of service of the notice, the reassessment proceedings as initiated by the learned Assessing Officer are liable to be quashed. 3) That the Hon'ble Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has erred in law as much as on the facts of the case by confirming the aforesaid addition made by the learned Assessing Officer without appreciating the fact that the learned Assessing Officer further did not assume the jurisdiction to complete the assessment proceedings as no notice u/sec. 148....