TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (9) TMI 1408
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....nt identification no. (DIN) in its body. The said ground is reproduced as under: 1. Order passed u/s. 143(3) r.w.s. 144C of the act dated 22 April 2022 (issued to the assessee on 8 February 2023) is void ab initio and is liable to be quashed as passed manually without mentioning DIN in its body and the same was passed in complete violation of the Circular bearing no. 19/2019 dated 14 August 2019. 1.1. That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, assessment order passed under section 143(3) r.w.s. 144C of the Act dated 22 April 2022 (communication for DIN issued to the assessee on 8 February 2023) is void ab initio and is liable to be quashed. 1.2. that on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. AO erred in passing assessment order under section 143(3) r.w.s. 144C of the Act dated 22 April 2022 (communication for DIN issued to the assessee on 8 February 2023) manually without mentioning DIN in its body and the same was passed in complete violation of the Circular bearing no. 19/2019 dated 14 August 2019." 3. We also note that registry has observed about inordinate delay in filing the present appeal ....
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.... demonstrated that the box titled with "DIN and Notice No." is left blank without mentioning the required numbers. Copy of the same is reproduced for ease of reference. 6. It was then submitted that an intimation letter for order passed u/s. 143(3) was issued dated 18.01.2023 mentioning that the impugned order dated 22.04.2022 is having stated DIN. Copy of this intimation letter is reproduced for ease of reference: 7. In this reference, Ld. Counsel pointed the notice/communication reference ID to submit that this intimation letter was issued on 08.02.2023. The said is reproduced as under: 8. He thus, strongly submitted that in view of aforesaid facts and circumstances, the impugned assessment order dated 22.04.2022 is in gross violation of the requirements contained in CBDT Circular No. 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 and, therefore, is void ab initio and liable to be quashed. 8.1. He placed reliance on the decision of Coordinate Bench of ITAT, Kolkata in the case of Tata Medical Centre Trust Vs. CIT (2022) 140 taxmann.com 431 (Kol) wherein it was held that revision order passed u/s. 263 issued manually without DIN in its body was invalid and deemed to have n....
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.... Board of Direct Taxes (the Board) that there have been some instances in which the notice. order; summons, letter and any correspondence (hereinafter referred to as "communication" were found to have been issued manually, without maintaining a proper audit trail of such communication. 2. In order to prevent such instances and to maintain proper audit trail of all communication, the Board in exercise of power under section 119 of the income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act'), has decided that no communication shall be issued by any income-tax authority relating to assessment, appeals, orders, statutory or otherwise, exemptions, enquiry. 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 Document Identification Number (DIN) has been allotted and is duly quoted in the body of such communication. 3. In exceptional circumstances such as,- (i) when there are technical difficulties in generating/allotting/quoting the DIN and issuance of communication electronically; or&n....
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....uance of manual communication for the reasons mentioned in para 3(v) shall be sent to the Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) within seven days from the date of its issuance. 7. Further, in all pending assessment proceedings, where notices were issued manually; prior to issuance of this Circular, the Income-tax authorities shall identify such cases and shall upload the notices in these cases on the Systems by 31th October, 2019. Paragraph 3 of the Circular sets out five exceptional circumstances where the aforementioned mandatory requirement may not be adhered to, but requires that if an order/communication is to be issued without a DIN, it can be done only after recording reasons in writing in the file and with the prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General of Income Tax. Further, paragraph 3 requires that if such exceptional circumstances are claimed, the orders/communication issued without a DIN must state this fact in a specific format set out in paragraph 3 of the Circular. Paragraph 4 of the Circular provides that any order/communication which is not in conformity with paragraphs 2 and 3 of the....
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....einabove, inter alia, was to create an audit trail. Therefore, the communication relating to assessments, appeals, orders, etcetera which find mention in paragraph 2 of the 2019 Circular, albeit without DIN, can have no standing in law, having regard to the provisions of paragraph 4 of the 2019 Circular. (c) During the course of hearing, Mr. Suresh Kumar produced an intimation letter dated 13th October 2021 stating that the order dated 28th September 2021 under Section 153C of the Act has a DIN, which is set out therein. Even if this is held to be in compliance with paragraph 5 of the Circular, which deals with regularization of communications without DIN, this can only seek to regularize the failure to generate a DIN, but yet the requirements of paragraph 3 of the Circular will still remain contravened and consequently, the order dated 28th September 2021 ought to be treated as invalid and never issued; (d) The said Circular also applies to the satisfaction note dated 13th July 2021 issued by respondent no.l. The satisfaction note will fall within the scope of paragraph 2 of the Circular as a communication of the specified type issued to any person. I....
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....ed assessment order is invalid and is deemed to have never been issued as per para 4 of the CBDT Circular since it is not in conformity with the same. 10.3. In respect of observation of registry about the inordinate delay in filing of the present appeal before the Tribunal, the reasons stated by the assessee are directly linked to the issue relating to DIN and its intimation to the assessee by which the assessment order was made available to it, only on 16.03.2023. Considering this fact, we condone the delay as observed by the registry. Accordingly, ground no. 1 taken by the assessee is allowed. 11. Since the impugned assessment order has been held to be invalid and deemed to have never been issued, all other grounds taken by the assessee are rendered academic in nature and, therefore, not adjudicated upon. 12. In the result appeal of the assessee is allowed. Order pronounced in the open court on 08.09.2023. ============= Document 1 INCOME TAX DFPRTMEN GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX CIRCLE-11[1], KOLKATA PAN AAACB2528H NAME LINDE INDIA LIMITED Computatio....