AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (5) TMI 382
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....the week commencing 21.3.2022 alongwith connected matter." 5. Today, case has been called out. No one appears for the petitioners to press the writ petitions even in the revised call. 6. In the aforesaid Writ Tax No. 874 of 2010, Writ Tax No. 875 of 2010, Writ Tax No. 353 of 2012 and Writ Tax No. 13 of 2014, the petitioners have prayed for the following relief: Relief as prayed in Writ Tax No. 874 of 2010 Relief as prayed in Writ Tax No. 875 of 2010 Relief as prayed in Writ Tax No. 353 of 2012 Relief as prayed in Writ Tax No. 13 of 2014 i) issue a suitable writ order or direction in the nature of writ of certiorari quashing the permission granted by the opposite party no. 3 on 30.4.2010 for the assessment year 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and the consequential notice under Section 21(1) for the assessment year 2003-04 (ANNEXURE NO. 10 & 12) of this Writ Petition as well as the notice issued under sub section 1 of section 21 of the Act by the opposite party no. 4 for the assessment year 2007-08 (ANNEXURE NO. 12) to this Writ Petition after summoning the records. ii) issue a suitable writ order or direction in the nature of mandamus/prohibition directing....
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.... of mandamus prohibiting/ directing the respondent nos. 3 and 4 not to proceed in any manner in pursuance of notice dated 12.03.2012 (Annexure No. 1 to the writ petition) for assessment year 2005-06 under Sub Section (2) of Section 21 of the Act. i) issue a suitable writ order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing notices dated 19.10.2013 issued by Respondent No.7). ii) issue a suitable writ order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the approval dated 24.3.2011 for the assessment year 2004-05 granted by the Opposite Party No. 3 under subsection 2 of Section 21 (ANNEXURE NO. 1) to this Writ petition after summoning the records. iii) Issue a suitable writ order or direction in the nature of writ of mandamus/ prohibition directing/ prohibiting the Opposite Party no. 3 & 4 not to proceed in any manner in pursuance of the notice under Section 21 of the Act for the assessment year 2004-05, 2005-06 & 2006-07. 7. Perusal of the reliefs sought by the petitioners reveal that notices under Section 21 of the UP Trade Tax Act, 1948 and the approval granted, relating to assessment years 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 have been challenged by the petiti....
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....s that a mere change of opinion while perusing the same material cannot be a "reason to believe" that a case of escaped assessment exists requiring assessment proceedings to be reopened. (See: Binani Industries Ltd. v. CCT,(2007) 15 SCC 435; A.L.A. Firm v. CIT, (1991) 2 SCC 558). If a conscious application of mind is made to the relevant facts and material available or existing at the relevant point of time while making the assessment and again a different or divergent view is reached, it would tantamount to "change of opinion". If an assessing Authority forms an opinion during the original assessment proceedings on the basis of material facts and subsequently finds it to be erroneous; it is not a valid reason under the law for reassessment. Thus, reason to believe cannot be said to be the subjective satisfaction of the assessing Authority but means an objective view on the disclosed information in the particular case and must be based on firm and concrete facts that some income has escaped assessment. 30. In case of there being a change of opinion, there must necessarily be a nexus that requires to be established between the "change of opinion" and the material p....
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....isk and DVD that the petitioners have made following unaccounted purchases of iron ingots from one M/s Jain Steel, Bijnor: Assessment Year Quantity in metric ton 2003-04 1353.51 2004-05 8808.74 2005-06 5728.865 2006-07 7757.930 12. Apart from above, the materials available in the hard-disk also revealed purchases of scrap by the petitioners from various dealers and sale of ingots to various local dealers and also to some Firms of Uttarakhand. It also came to light on the basis of materials available in the hands of the respondents that the petitioners made undisclosed purchases during the Assessment Year 2003-04 from M/s Kamakhya Steels Pvt. Ltd., Bijnore (658.28 MT). These details of evaded purchases/ sales which have been extracted above from the impugned notices under Section 21(1) of the Act, 1948. Evaded transactions in some greater detail are mentioned in the impugned notices. Writ Tax No.13 of 2014:- 13. In this writ petition, the approval dated 24.03.2011 for the Assessment Year 2004-05 was granted by the Additional Commissioner under the proviso to Section 21(2) of the Act, 1948 noticing the information received by the Deputy Commissi....
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....for some year. If such a basis exists, the assessing authority can proceed in the manner laid down in the section. To put it differently, if there are, in fact, some reasonable grounds for the assessing authority to believe that the whole or any part of the turnover of a dealer has escaped assessment, it can take action under the section. Reasonable grounds necessarily postulate that they must be germane to the formation of the belief regarding escaped assessment. If the grounds are of an extraneous character, the same would not warrant initiation of proceedings under the above section. If, however, the grounds are relevant and have a nexus with the formation of belief regarding escaped assessment, the assessing authority would be clothed with jurisdiction to take action under the section. Whether the grounds are adequate or not is not a matter which would be gone into by the High Court or this Court, for the sufficiency of the grounds which induced the assessing authority to act is not a justiciable issue. What can be challenged is the existence of the belief but not the sufficiency of reasons for the belief. At the same time, it is necessary to observe that the belief must be hel....