TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (8) TMI 129
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....-parte stay on the reassessment proceedings initiated under sections 147/148 of the Act vide the impugned notice dated 29.04.2024 issued under section 148 of the Act, and/or any other proceedings initiated thereunder for the assessment year 2016-17, during pendency of the present petition; (III) Pass such other order or orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case." 2. The principal challenge is to the initiation of reassessment pursuant a notice dated 29 April 2024 issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [Act] and pertaining to Assessment Year [AY] 2016-17. The reassessment action represents the third foray of the writ petitioner consequent to an earlier action coming to be annulled in terms of the judgment rendered by the Court in Twylight Infrastructure (P) Ltd. v. CIT 2024 SCC OnLine Del 330. The petitioners contend that bearing in mind the Proviso to Section 149 (1), the reassessment action would not sustain. 3. For the purposes of consideration of the issues which arise, we deem it apposite to take note of the following facts. For A.Y. 2016-17, the petitioner filed its Return of Income on 17 October 2016.....
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....initiation of reassessment proceedings. In fact, the Relaxation Act does not give power to Government to extend the erstwhile sections 147 to 151 beyond March 31, 2021 and/or defer the operation of substituted provisions enacted by the Finance Act, 2021. Consequently, the impugned Explanations in the Notifications dated March 31, 2021 and April 27, 2021 are not conditional legislation and are beyond the power delegated to the Government as well as ultra vires the parent statute, i.e., the Relaxation Act. Accordingly, this court is respectfully not in agreement with the view of the Chhattisgarh High Court in Palak Khatuja (supra), but with the views of the Allahabad High Court and Rajasthan High Court in Ashok Kumar Agarwal (supra) and Bpip Infra Private Limited (supra) respectively. 100. The submission of the Revenue that section 6 of the General Clauses Act saves notices issued under section 148 post March 31, 2021 is untenable in law, as in the present case, the repeal is followed by a fresh legislation on the same subject and the new Act manifests an intention to destroy the old procedure. Consequently, if the Legislature has permitted reassessment to be made in a particular m....
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....timately laid to rest in terms of the judgment in Union of India vs. Ashish Agarwal (2023) 1 SCC 617. The Supreme Court ultimately modified the conflicting directions issued by various High Courts and framed the following directions:- "25. Therefore, we propose to modify the judgments and orders passed by the respective High Courts as under: 25.1. The respective impugned Section 148 notices issued to the respective assessees shall be deemed to have been issued under Section 148-A of the IT Act as substituted by the Finance Act, 2021 and treated to be show-cause notices in terms of Section 148-A(b). The respective assessing officers shall within thirty days from today provide to the assessees the information and material relied upon by the Revenue so that the assessees can reply to the notices within two weeks thereafter. 25.2. The requirement of conducting any enquiry with the prior approval of the specified authority under Section 148-A(a) be dispensed with as a one-time measure vis-a-vis those notices which have been issued under Section 148 of the unamended Act from 1-4-2021 till date, including those which have been quashed by the High Courts. 25.3. The assessing office....
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....nder: 28.1. The impugned Section 148 notices issued to the respective assessees which were issued under unamended Section 148 of the IT Act, which were the subject-matter of writ petitions before the various respective High Courts shall be deemed to have been issued under Section 148-A of the IT Act as substituted by the Finance Act, 2021 and construed or treated to be show cause notices in terms of Section 148-A(b). The assessing officer shall, within thirty days from today provide to the respective assessees information and material relied upon by the Revenue, so that the assessees can reply to the show-cause notices within two weeks thereafter. 28.2. The requirement of conducting any enquiry, if required, with the prior approval of specified authority under Section 148-A(a) is hereby dispensed with as a one-time measure vis-a-vis those notices which have been issued under Section 148 of the unamended Act from 1-4-2021 till date, including those which have been quashed by the High Courts. 28.3. Even otherwise as observed hereinabove holding any enquiry with the prior approval of specified authority is not mandatory but it is for the assessing officers concerned to hold any ....
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....sed on the judgment in Ganesh Dass Khanna, the impugned orders and notices are set aside, liberty be given to the revenue to commence reassessment proceedings afresh. 29. Therefore, having regard to the aforesaid, the impugned notices and orders in each of the above-captioned writ petitions are quashed on the ground that there is no approval of the specified authority, as indicated in Section 151 (ii) of the Act. The direction is issued with the caveat that the revenue will have liberty to take steps, if deemed necessary, albeit as per law. 30. Needless to add, the rights and contentions of both the sides will remain open, in the event the revenue triggers reassessment proceedings." 10. It is thereafter and undeterred by the rendition of judgment by this Court that the impugned notices have come to be issued. It becomes pertinent to note that the liberty which the Court had spoken of in Twylight Infrastructure was subject to the caveat that if the respondents chose to initiate any further action, the same would have to necessarily be sanctioned by statute. This is evident from the Court in Twylight Infrastructure observing that the Revenue would be at liberty to trigger reasse....
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.... issue of notice under section 148 expires on the 31st day of March of such financial year, a period of fifteen days shall be excluded for the purpose of computing the period of limitation as per this section and the notice issued under section 148 in such case shall be deemed to have been issued on the 31st day of March of such financial year: Provided also that where the information as referred to in Explanation 1 to section 148 emanates from a statement recorded or documents impounded under section 131 or section 133A, as the case may be, on or before the 31st day of March of a financial year, in consequence of,- (a) a search under section 132 which is initiated; or (b) a search under section 132 for which the last of authorisations is executed; or (c) a requisition made under section 132A, after the 15th day of March of such financial year, a period of fifteen days shall be excluded for the purpose of computing the period of limitation as per this section and the notice issued under clause (b) of section 148A in such case shall be deemed to have been issued on the 31st day of March of such financial year:] Provided also that for the purposes of computing the period ....