TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (11) TMI 861
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....DIN mentioned in the ld. AO's order which is contrary to the CBDT Circular No.19/2019 dated 14th August 2019. Hence, he submitted that the said AO's order is void ab initio. He further submitted that in such a situation, jurisdiction assumed is invalid and whole proceedings are vitiated. For this, ld. Counsel of the assessee relied upon catena of case laws. 4. Ld. DR for the Revenue relied upon the orders of the authorities below but could not dispute the proposition that the order is in violation of CBDT Circular No.19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 requiring mandatory DIN. 5. We have heard both the parties and perused the records. First, we consider the contents of CBDT Circular No.19/2019 dated 14.08.2019, which reads as under:- "Circular No. 19 /2019 Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Direct Taxes New Delhi, dated the 14th of August, 2019 Subject: Generation/Allotment/Quoting of Document Identification Number in Notice/Order/Summons/letter/correspondence issued by the Income-tax Department - reg. With the launch of various e-governance initiatives, income-tax Department is moving toward total computeri....
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....AN 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 stale 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(ii)/3(iii)/3(iv)/3(v) of the CBDT Circular No ...dated (strike off those which are not applicable) and with the approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income Tax vide number .... dated .... " 4. Any communication which is not in conformity with Para-2 and Para-3 above, shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. 5. The communication issued manually in the three situations specified in para 3- (i), (ii) or (iii) above shall have to be regularised within 15 working days of its issuance, by - i. uploading the manual communication on the System. ii. compulsorily gen....
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...., investigation, verification of information, penalty, prosecution, rectification, approval etc. to the assessee or any other person, on or after the 1st day of October, 2019, unless a computer generated DIN has been allotted and is duly quoted in the body of such communication. Paragraph 3 of the circular carves out certain exceptions to paragraph 2 by providing that under certain exceptional circumstances, enumerated in clause (i) to (v) of paragraph 3, the communication may be issued manually but only after recording reasons in writing not only in the file and with prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income-tax, but, the communication issued manually in such circumstances must also state the reasons why communication is issued manually without a DIN and must also mention the date and number of written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income-tax for issuing manual communication. In fact, in paragraph 3 of the aforesaid circular, the format for recording such reasons has been specified. Paragraph 4 of the circular makes it clear that any communication issued which, is not in conformity with paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 of the c....
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....ith paragraph 2 and 3 shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. The phraseology of paragraph 4 of the 2019 Circular fairly puts such communication, which includes communication of assessment order, in the category of communication which are non-est in law. 17.1 It is also well established that circulars issued by the CBDT in exercise of its powers under Section 119 of the Act are binding on the" revenue. 17.2 The aforementioned principle stands enunciated in a long line of judgements, including the Supreme Court's judgment rendered in K.P. Varghese v. Income Tax Officer, Ernakulam and Anr., (1981) 4 SCC 173. The relevant extracts are set forth hereafter: "12. But the construction which is commending itself to us does not rest merely on the principle of contemporanea expositio. The two circulars of the Central Board of Direct Taxes to which we have just referred are legally binding on the Revenue and this binding character attaches to the two circulars even if they be found not in accordance with the correct interpretation of subsection (2) and they depart or deviate from such construction. It is now well settled as a resul....
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....ere genuinely refunded to the companies they would not he taken into account under Section 12(1 -B), " Sections 2(6-A)(e) and 12(1-B) did not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality. This decision was followed in Ellerman Lines case [(1972) 4 SCC 474 : 1974 SCC (Tax) 304 : 82 ITR 913] where referring to another circular issued by the Central Board of Revenue under Section 5(8) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1922 on which reliance was placed on behalf of the assessee, this Court observed: "Now, coming to the question as to the effect of instructions issued under Section 5(8) of the Act, this Court observed in Navnitlal C. Javeri v. K.K. Sen, Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Bombay [AIR 1965 SC 1375 : (1965) 1 SCR 909 : 56 ITR 198] : 'It is clear that a circular of the kind which was issued by the Board would be binding on all officers and persons employed in the execution of the Act under Section 5(8) of the Act. This circular pointed out to all the officers that it was likely that some of the companies might have advanced loans to their shareholders as a result of genuine transactions of loans, and the idea was not to affect such transactions and not ....
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....mine whether the issue is debatable or if there is an alternate view possible. Given the language employed in the 2019 Circular, there is neither any scope for debate not is there any leeway for an alternate view. 21.1 We find no error in the view adopted by the Tribunal. The Tribunal has simply applied the provisions of the 2019 Circular and thus, reached a conclusion in favour of the respondent/assessee." 9. Thus, keeping in view the aforesaid observations of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court and in terms of paragraph 4 of the circular No. 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019, we hold that the impugned AO order is invalid and shall be deemed to have never been passed. Accordingly, we quash the impugned AO order. Further, the issue that a simultaneous DIN number was generated and communicated have been considered by Co-ordinate Bench of the Tribunal in the case of Abhimanyu Chaturvedi vs DCIT in ITA Nos.2486, 2487 and 2488/Del/2022. The relevant paragraph of this order is reproduced hereunder:- " 15.1 In this context from the aforesaid Circular no. 19/2019 it can be noted that it mandates that if the 'communication' is issued under aforesaid three exceptions the 'communication....