TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (8) TMI 378
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....d below ; 1. That the Impugned Order dated 10.08.2022 passed by the Ld. CIT (A) is bad in law and fact. 2. That the Impugned Order has incorrectly upheld the Assessment Order dated 09.08.2021 which is void ab initio. 3. That the Impugned Order has failed to appreciate the fact that the Assessment Order dated 09.08.2021 is bad in law and fact. 4. That the Assessment Proceedings under Section 153A and 153D of the Income Tax Act ('the Act') have been incorrectly initiated against the Appellant and the same are without any basis in law and fact. 5. That the Impugned Assessment proceedings are in violation of principles of natural justice and the Ld. AO has acted in a premeditated manner. 6. That the Ld. CIT (A) has failed to appreciate the fact that all additions made in the case of the Appellant are without any basis as the statement/s on basis which such additions were made were withdrawn. 7. That the addition of Rs. 2,32,86,521 under Section 69A of the Act has been erroneously upheld by the Ld. CIT (A). 8. That the Ld. CIT (A) has erroneously upheld the addition of Rs. 6,71,600/- (i.e. 3 percent of Rs. 2,23,86,521/-) u/s. 69C of the Act. 9. That having regard to th....
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....orp Ltd. were purchased vide cheques issued by the Assessees. The said shares were duly credited in the D-Mat Account of the Assessees. 6. It is claimed that no incriminating material whatsoever was found at the premises of the Assessees. It is further claimed that the Assessment proceedings against the Assessees, as per the provisions of Section 153A of the Act were to become time barred on 30.09.2021. However, as the Assessees did not receive the assessment order till 30.9.2021, so the assessee sought a copy of the order vide letter dated 13.10.2021. It is submitted that they were supplied with a copy of the Assessment Order which was dated 09.08.202. It was running into 250 pages and did not bear any DIN number and the said orders were received by the assessees only 16.10.2021. It is also pointed out that different orders were put on the ITBA Portal which were of lesses pages and a DIN purportedly generated on 17.09.2021 and 18.09.2021 was communicated separately. 6.1 Ld AR has also given a table showing the details of the two separate assessment orders in the case of the Assessees: Name of the Assessee Details of Assessment Order received by Post Details of Assessment Or....
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....have been issued manually or through ITBA. 3. In the case of Sh. Abhimanyu Chaturvedi, assessment order u/s 153A of Income Tax Act, 1961 for A.Y. 2013-14 was passed manually on 09.08.2021. Further, the assessment order for A.Y. 2013-14 passed manually earlier on 09.08.2021 was uploaded on ITBA on 17.09.2021 and DIN No. ITBA/AST/M/153A/2021-22/1035679086(1) was generated for the Assessment order for A.Y. 2013-14 on 17.09.2021 through ITBA. Whenever manually passed assessment order is uploaded on ITBA (Income Tax Business Application) through manual to system tab, a DIN (Document Identification Number) is generated for that particular Assessment Order. This generated DIN is also communicated to assessee. In this case, after generation of DIN, the assessee was sent intimation letter through ITBA for order u/s 153A of the I.T.Act, 1961 on 17.09.2021. It is further submitted that the CIT(A) has already adjudicated the issue of DIN in para No. 13 of its order dated 10.08.2022 wherein it has been held that " It has no bearing on the validity of the Assessment Order , which was duly uploaded on the ITBA on 17.09.2021 and intimation sent on 17.09.2021 after generating DIN ITBA/A3T/S/91/20....
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....ut DIN. It was submitted that generation of the DIN subsequently does not validate the deficiency. 8.2 It was further submitted that the assessment orders were received by the assessee only after they had made a communication with the ld. AO and when the assessment order were dispatched on 14.10.2021, the assessment stood barred as same had to be concluded by 30.09.2021. It pointed out that appellants have filed their respective affidavits deposing that they had not received any assessment order prior to their request letter dated 13.10.2021. It was submitted that Ld. AO while submitting his report to the Tribunal has not submitted any evidence to show that the emails were sent from ITBA Portal and the affidavits of assessee in that regard are in a paper book. Reliance was placed the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in State of Andhra Pradesh Vs. M. Ramakishitah & co. (1994) 93 STC 406 (SC,) CIT vs. Rai Bahadur Kishore Chand And Sons in ITA no. 522 of 2007 dated 13.03.2008, CAGIT Vs. Kappumalai Estate (1998) 234 ITR 187 (Ker.), Government Wood Works Vs. State of Kerala (1988) 69 STC 62 (Ker) and CIT & Anr. Vs. BJN Hotels Ltd. [2016] 382 ITR 110 (Karn), Kanubhai M. Patel ....
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....023 submitting that no incriminating material was found during the search and creating a liability on the basis of statement alone is not sustainable. 10. On the other hand, Ld. DR has supported the findings of Ld. Tax Authorities below. The stress of argument of Ld. DR was on the fact that the very procedure of generating the DIN and communicating the same is such that as the order is uploaded the DIN is generated and communicated to the assesses. It was submitted that since a manual assessment order was prepared outside ITBA portal the assessment order is dated 09.08.2021 and thereafter it was uploaded before the date of barring of assessment and thereafter Ld. DR has heavily relied the judgement of Jharkhand High Court in WP(P) no. 1901 of 2022 dated 21.02.2023 title Prakash Lal Khandelwal vs. CIT -Ranchi to contend that Hon'ble High Court has held that generation of DIN and its communication subsequently, does not make the assessment order barred by limitation. 11. The Bench has given thoughtful consideration to the matter on record and submissions. The issues to be decided first are ; First, if there was any illegality in the impugned assessment orders for the reason that t....
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....official duties; or (iii) when due to delay in PAN migration, PAN is lying with non-jurisdictional Assessing Officer; or (iv) when PAN of assessee is not avail able and where a proceeding under the Act (other than verification under section 131 or section 133 of the Act) is sought to be initiated; or (v) When the functionality to issue communication is not available in the system, the communication may be issued manually but only after recording reasons in writing in the file and with prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of income tax. In cases where manual communication is required to be issued due to delay in PAN migration the proposal seeking approval for issuance of manual communication shall include the reason for delay in PAN migration. The communication issued under aforesaid circumstances shall state the fact that the communication is issued manually without a DIN and the date of obtaining of the written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income- Tax for issue of manual communication in the following format- "......This communication issues manually without a DIN on account of reason/reasons given in para 3 (i)/3(....
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....a document which was issued outside ITBA system, DIN will be generated prior to uploading of such manual letter or notice or order in ITBA. User may use the same for reference and quoting as Doc. No. in physical copy. 4. Intimation letter will continue to be generated in ITBA. The same document will also be shared with e-Filing portal through e- Proceedings interface for authentication purpose. Assessee can verify the authenticity of the Letter or Notice or Order issued by Income Tax Authorities (ITA) in e-Filing portal. Such intimation along with Letter/Notice/Orders also made available in View/Download Letter/Notice/Orders screen if users wish to dispatch the same through post. Steps to be followed for DIN generation in ITBA application are as below:- i. Navigate to Generate Letter/Notice/Orders ii. Select Manual to System option screen. iii. User will enter the Date of Issue and Manual File No. iv. Click on Save and Generate DIN. NOTE: DIN will be generated in the system and will be displayed in column 'System Doc. No.' User should physically sign the document after quoting DIN before uploading, as the assessee will be viewing the uploaded document on their e-Proce....
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....ome instances in which the notice, order, summons, letter and any correspondence (hereinafter referred to as "communication"). So the assessment order itself is a communication and all compliances expected have to be specific to the assessment order. 15.3 Coming back to the assessment orders, in fact as para no. 1 to 3.1 of the assessment order dated 09.08.2021 are considered they mention that notice u/s 153A of the Act was issued through ITBA portal. Subsequent notice u/s 143(2) of the Act was also issued through ITBA Portal. Thus, the notices for the purpose of assessment were issued through ITBA Portal and if thereafter the assessment was carried out manually the assessment order should have mentioned the aforesaid fact to comply with the mandate of Circular with regard to communications issued manually. 16. Further, the Bench takes note of the instructions dated 25.10.19, which lay down that when a document is prepared outside ITBA system and uploaded manually, a DIN is required to be generated prior to uploading the document in ITBA. The instructions make it imperative that the DIN so generated has to be used for reference and quoting a document number in a physical copy. Th....
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....perusal of the aforementioned Circular clearly shows that the CBDT has considered the exceptional circumstances as mentioned in Para 3 of the Circular and therefore, in our considered opinion, only those circumstances which have been mentioned therein would be considered for non-mentioning of DIN. 10. In Para 3 itself, the Board has made it very clear that in cases where communication is issued manually, it may be done only after obtaining necessary approval of the relevant authorities and communication so issued must indicate the exceptional circumstances provided in the Circular itself. It has been made very clear by the Board that any communication which is not in conformity with Para 2. and 3 of the Circular shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. 11. The impugned order is hit by this mandate of the Board and, therefore, we are inclined to adjudicate Ground No. 8 [supra] in favour of the assessee by holding that the order dated 15.10.2019 framed u/s 147/144C(13)/143(3) of the Act is invalid and deemed to have never been issued as it fails to mention DIN in its body by adhering to Circular No. 19/2009 dated 14.08.2019." 18.3 This order of ....
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....l/2021 Mahesh Kumar Sureka vs. PCIT order dated 29.11.2022. Thus, the judgment cited by Ld. DR does not come to the rescue of Revenue. Thus, first issue as casted is decided in favour of the assessee. 19. Coming to the second issue it comes up that there is nothing before the Bench from the side of Revenue indicating that the order uploaded on ITBA was the complete order and communicated through ITBA rather Ld. Counsel was able to demonstrate that as of now also there are 4 or 7 pages orders on the ITBA. There appears to be an error which may be attributed to system glitch wherein the ITBA Portal does not have the complete order and only 4 or 9 pages respectively were uploaded. However, the Bench is of considered view that service of incomplete order on ITBA may be worst a case of non-service of the order and as for the purpose of filing the appeal only it may be relevant. The assessment order does not become void for that reason. It is like a case where copy supplied was not legible or incomplete and only when legible or complete copy is supplied to the assessee the limitation period would start to run. 19.1 Certainly, the order of any authority cannot be said to be passed unles....