AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 1573
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....24/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 2479/2024 & CM APPL. 10151/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 2480/2024 & CM APPL. 10153/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 2481/2024 & CM APPL. 10155/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 5568/2024 & CM APPL. 23003/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 5583/2024 & CM APPL. 23043/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 5719/2024 & CM APPL. 23582/2024 (Stay), 52556/2024 (23 Days Delay in Rej.), W.P.(C) 5721/2024 & CM APPL. 23586/2024 (Stay), 52554/2024 (23 Days Delay in Rej.), W.P.(C) 5732/2024 & CM APPL. 23609/2024 (Stay), 52575/2024 (23 Days Delay in Rej.) W.P.(C) 5787/2024 & CM APPL. 23954/2024 (Direction) W.P.(C) 3329/2024 & CM APPL. 13739/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 6177/2024 & CM APPL. 25690/2024 (Stay), W.P.(C) 12832/2024 & CM APPL. 53526/2024 (Interim Relief) For the Petitioner Through: Mr. Ruchesh Sinha, Ms. Shilpa Choudhary & Mr. Pankaj Aggarwal, Advs., Mr. Gautam Jain, Mr. Shaantanu Jain & Mr. Manish Yadav, Advs. Mr. Bhupinder Jit Kumar & Mr. Nikhil Sharma, Advs. Mr. Ajay Vohra, Sr. Adv. with Mr. Rohit Jain, Mr. Aniket D. Agrawal, Mr. Deepesh Jain & Mr. Samarth Chaudhari, Advs. Mr. Sumit K. Batra, Mr. Manish Khurana, Ms. Priyanka Jindal & Mr. Siddhanth Sarwal, Advs. Mr. Rohit Jain, Mr. Deepesh Jain & Mr. Samarth Chaudhari, Advs. Mr....
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....ie the lead writ petitions, being WP(C) 5721/2024 and WP(C) 1892/2024. 5. Dharampal Satyapal Ltd. [DSL], the writ petitioner, is the successor entity of Abhisar Buildwell Private Limited [ABPL], a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and which had come into existence as a result of a demerger of the Rubber Thread Unit of the writ petitioner pursuant to a Scheme of Demerger approved by the concerned High Court on 11 September 2007. ABPL is stated to have filed a revised Return of Income for Assessment Year [AY] 2007-08 on 29 September 2008. It appears that on 21 January 2011 a search and seizure operation was carried out in respect of the Dharampal Satyapal Group and which included ABPL. Consequently, ABPL came to be served a notice under Section 153A on 09 January 2012. The aforesaid proceedings ultimately culminated in an order of assessment being framed and which saw the Assessing Officer [AO] ordering a disallowance of INR 10,64,45,327/- in respect of depreciation which had been claimed by ABPL. 6. The order of assessment dated 18 March 2013 was subjected to challenge by way of an appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) [CIT(A)]. That appeal ca....
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.... Mehndipur Balaji has taken a contrary view." 9. The Supreme Court also took note of a decision handed down by the Gujarat High Court in Principal Commissioner of Income-tax v. Saumya Construction P. Ltd. 2016 SCC OnLine Guj 9976 and which had resonated the view expressed by this Court in Kabul Chawla. This flows from a reading of paragraph 27 of the report which is extracted hereinbelow: "27. Thereafter in Saumya Construction, the Gujarat High Court, while referring the decision of the Delhi High Court in Kabul Chawla and after considering the entire scheme of block assessment under Section 153-A of the 1961 Act, had held that in case of completed assessment/unabated assessment, in absence of any incriminating material, no addition can be made by the AO and the AO has no jurisdiction to reopen the completed assessment. In paras 15 and 16, it is held as under: (Saumya Construction case, SCC OnLine Guj) "15. On a plain reading of Section 153-A of the Act, it is evident that the trigger point for exercise of powers thereunder is a search under Section 132 or a requisition under Section 132-A of the Act. Once a search or requisition is made, a mandate is cast upon....
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.... in case of search or requisition". It is well settled as held by the Supreme Court in a catena of decisions that the heading of the, section can be regarded as a key to the interpretation, of the operative portion of, the section and if there is no ambiguity in the language or if it is plain and clear, then the heading used in the section strengthens that meaning. From the heading of Section 153, the intention of the legislature is clear viz. to provide for assessment in case of search and requisition. When, the very purpose of the provision is to make assessment in case of search or requisition, it goes without saying that the assessment has to have relation to the search or requisition. In other words, the assessment, should be connected with something found during the search or requisition viz. incriminating material which reveals undisclosed income. Thus, while in view of the mandate of sub-section (1) of Section 153-A of the Act, in every case where there is a search or requisition, the assessing officer is obliged to issue notice to such person to furnish returns of income for the six years preceding the assessment year relevant to the previous year in which the search is co....
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....ction (1) or Section 153, the assessment or reassessment relating to any assessment year which has abated under the second proviso to sub-section (1), shall stand revived with effect from the date of receipt of the order of such annulment by the Commissioner. Therefore, the intention of the legislation seems to be that in case of search only the pending assessment/ reassessment proceedings shall abate and the AO would assume the jurisdiction to assess or reassess the "total income" for the entire six years' period/block assessment period. The intention does not seem to be to reopen the completed/ unabated assessments, unless any incriminating material is found with respect to assessment year concerned falling within last six years preceding the search. Therefore, on true interpretation of Section 153-A of the 1961 Act, in case of a search under Section 132 or requisition under Section 132-A and during the search any incriminating material is found, even in case of unabated/completed assessment, the AO would have the jurisdiction to assess or reassess the "total income" taking into consideration the incriminating material collected during the search and other material which woul....
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....eement with the view taken by the Delhi High Court in Kabul Chawla and the Gujarat High Court in Saumya Construction and the decisions of the other High Courts taking the view that no addition can be made in respect of the completed assessments in absence of any incriminating material." 12. The batch ultimately came to be disposed of in the following terms: "36. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above, it is concluded as under: 36.1. That in case of search under Section 132 or requisition under Section 132-A, the AO assumes the jurisdiction for block assessment under Section 153-A; 36.2. All pending assessments/reassessments shall stand abated; 36.3. In case any incriminating material is found/unearthed, even, in case of unabated/completed assessments, the AO would assume the jurisdiction to assess or reassess the "total income" taking into consideration the incriminating material unearthed during the search and the other material available with the AO including the income declared in the returns; and 36.4. In case no incriminating material is unearthed during the search, the AO cannot assess or reassess taking into cons....
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....y the High Court in none of the cases any incriminating material was found during the search either from the Assessee or from third party. In that view of the matter, as such, the assessments under Section 153-C of the Act are rightly set aside by the High Court. However, Shri N Venkataraman, learned ASG appearing on behalf of the Revenue, taking the clue from some of the observations made by this Court in the recent decision in the case of Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Central-3 v. Abhisar Buildwell P. Ltd., Civil Appeal No. 6580/2021, more particularly, paragraphs 11 and 13, has prayed to observe that the Revenue may be permitted to initiate re -assessment proceedings under Section 147/148 of the Act as in the aforesaid decision, the powers of the re-assessment of the Revenue even in case of the block assessment under Section 153-A of the Act have been saved. 2. As observed hereinabove, as no incriminating material was found in case of any of the Assessees either from the Assessee or from the third party and the assessments were under Section 153-C of the Act, the High Court has rightly set aside the Assessment Order(s). Therefore, the impugned judgment and order....
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....ect of such income which was found to have escaped assessment other than through incriminating material, the assessing officers would be entitled to reassess such income in terms of section 147/148 read with section 150. (iii) That the Assessing Officer, may if found necessary initiate fresh proceedings within 60 days from date of disposal of this application following the procedure stipulated in section 147-151 of the Act as is in force now." 2. Having gone through the averments made in the application and the prayers, we are of the opinion that the prayers sought can be said to be in the form of review which requires detail consideration at length looking into the importance of the matter. Therefore, the present application in the form of clarification is not entertained and we relegate the Revenue to file an appropriate review application for the relief sought in the present application and as and when such review application is filed the same can be heard in the open court. 3. In view of the above and without further entering into the merits of the application and/or expressing anything on merits on the prayers sought in the present application, the p....
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....ial and other material available with the Assessing Officer (hereinafter referred to as the AO). Further, for a search initiated or requisition made after 1-4-2017, notices for four more years (7th to 10th) could also be issued, if the income represented in the form of asset, which has escaped assessment amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more in the relevant assessment year. In some cases, orders were passed considering only other material available in the record in the absence of incriminating material. Hon'ble Delhi High Court delivered a decision on 28-8-2015 in the case of Kabul Chawla [ITA No. 707 of 2014 (Commissioner of Income-tax (Central)-III v. Kabul Chawla)]. It was held that the AO does not have jurisdiction for passing order under Section 153A in the absence of incriminating material found during the search under section 132 or requisition made under section 132A of the Act. 4. Hon'ble Supreme Court in the cases of Abhisar Buildwell (cited supra) and U.K. Paints (Overseas) Ltd. (cited supra), accordingly provided power to the AO to reopen the completed/unabated assessments u/s 147/148 of the Act, subject to fulfilment of the con....
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....uced as hereunder for ready reference: Section 153A(2) "[(2) If any proceeding initiated or any order of assessment or reassessment made under sub-section (1) has been annulled in appeal or any other legal proceeding, then, notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) or section 153, the assessment or reassessment relating to any assessment year which has abated under the second proviso to sub-section (1), shall stand revived with effect from the date of receipt of the order of such annulment by the [Principal Commissioner or] Commissioner: Provided that such revival shall cease to have effect, if such order of annulment is set aside.]" Section 153 (8) "Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this section, subsection (2) of section 153A or sub-section (1) of section 153B, the order of assessment or reassessment, relating to any assessment year, which stands revived under sub-section (2) of section 153A, shall be made within a period of one year W.P.(C)-5721-2024 189 from the end of the month of such revival or within the period specified in this section or sub-section (1) of section 153B, whichever is l....
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....is 6 months from the end of the month in which order is passed by the ITAT, as per section 254 of the Act. On receipt of the decision of the Hon'ble ITAT/High Court, as the case may be, necessary action as per law and extant instruction should be taken. Suggestive template for Miscellaneous Application and Notice of Motion is attached for reference purpose. The facts of the case will be required to be mentioned in the Miscellaneous Application or Notice of Motion. 8. Procedure required to be followed by the field formations to comply with the Supreme Court judgment: 8.1 The procedure required to be followed by the AO, in compliance with the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, is as under: (i) Every AO would have to ascertain which assessments fall in the category of abated assessments and unabated assessments. (ii) Out of abated assessment cases, those that have been annulled by an appellate authority on some technical ground or otherwise, may be potential cases for revival u/s 153A(2) of the Act. (iii) In respect of unabated assessment cases, the AO shall ascertain the facts of the case in hand and take necessary action....
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....O assumes the jurisdiction for block assessment under section 153A; (ii) all pending assessments/reassessments shall stand abated; (iii) in Case any incriminating material is found/unearthed, even, in Case of unabated/completed assessments, the AO would assume the jurisdiction to assess or reassess the 'total income' taking into consideration the incriminating material unearthed during the search and the other material available with the AO including the income declared in the returns; and (iv) in Case no incriminating material is unearthed during the search, the AO cannot assess or reassess taking into consideration the other material in respect of completed assessments/unabated assessments. Meaning thereby, in respect of completed/unabated assessments, no addition can be made by the AO in absence of any incriminating material found during the course of search under Section 132 or requisition under Section 132A of the Act, 1961. However, the completed/unabated assessments can be reopened by the AO in exercise of powers under Section 147/148 of the Act, subject to fulfilment of the conditions as envisaged/mentioned under sections 147/148 of the Ac....
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....ng thereby, in respect of completed/unabated assessments, no addition can be made by the AO in absence of any incriminating material found during the course of search under Section 132 or requisition under Section 132A of the Act, 1961. However, the completed/unabated assessments can be reopened by the AO in exercise of powers under Section 147/148 of the Act subject to fulfilment of the conditions as envisaged/mentioned under section 147/148 of the Act and those powers are saved. 3. The issue involved in the present Case decided by the Hon'ble High Court vide Order dated . . . (ITA No . . .) have similar issue as per above mentioned decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court. 4. In view of the Article 141 of the Constitution of India, the ratio decidendi of the abovementioned judgment by the Hon'ble Supreme Court is binding on all courts within the territory of India. Therefore, this Notice of Motion is being filed with prayer of condonation of delay of days, with a request that the Order dated . .. (ITA No . . .) may be reconsidered by Hon'ble High Court in view of Hon'ble Apex court's judgment (Civil Appeal No. 6580 of 2021). [Note: The....
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....ch 2024 and the notice impugned before us of even date for AY 2007-08. 22. Insofar as W.P.(C) 1892/2024 is concerned, we take note of the following facts which led to the institution of the aforenoted writ petition. The writ petitioner assails the reassessment action pertaining to AY 2008-09 and which was initiated by the issuance of a notice on 29 September 2023 under Section 148A (b). This was preceded by a search and seizure action which is stated to have been undertaken in the case of M/s Earth Infrastructures Ltd. and M/s Real Gains Estate Private Limited on 16 January 2013. It was the case of the respondents that during the search, certain documents pertaining to the present writ petitioner were also found and which led to the issuance of a notice under Section 153C. The aforesaid action was assailed by the writ petitioner by way of W.P (C) 2768/2016 and which came to be allowed by the Court on 25 April 2017. The Court essentially took note of the decisions rendered in Kabul Chawla and Commissioner of Income-tax v. RRJ Securities Ltd. 2015 SCC OnLine Del 13085 to ultimately come to the conclusion that the documents which had been unearthed in the course of the search would....
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....icer would have to initiate proceedings for the said year pursuant to an order made by an Appellate Assistant Commissioner. This contention is obviously untenable. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner or the Appellate Tribunal may set aside the notice itself for one reason or other and in that event the Income-tax Officer may have to initiate the proceedings once again in which case Section 34(1) will be attracted. The expression "finding or direction", the argument proceeds, is wide enough to take in at any rate a finding that is necessary to dispose of the appeal or directions which Appellate Assistant Commissioners have in practice been issuing in respect of assessments of the years other than those before them in appeal. What does the expression "finding" in the proviso to sub-section (3) of Section 34 of the Act mean? "Finding" has not been defined in the Income-tax Act. Order 20 Rule 5 of the Code of Civil Procedure reads: "In suits in which issues have been framed, the Court shall state its finding or decision, with the reasons therefor, upon each separate issue, unless the finding upon any one or more of the issues is sufficient for the decision of the suit." ....
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....eal, though it need not necessarily conclude the appeal. This concession does not materially differ from the definition we have given, but the difference lies in the application of that definition to the finding given in the present case. A "finding", therefore, can be only that which is necessary for the disposal of an appeal in respect of an assessment of a particular year. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner may hold, on the evidence, that the income shown by the assessee is not the income for the relevant year and thereby exclude that income from the assessment of the year under appeal. The finding in that context is that that income does not belong to the relevant year. He may incidentally find that the income belongs to another year, but that is not a finding necessary for the disposal of an appeal in respect of the year of assessment in question. The expression "direction" cannot be construed in vacuum, but must be collated to the directions which the Appellate Assistant Commissioner can give under Section 31. Under that section he can give directions, inter alia, under Section 31 (3) (b), (c) or (e) or s. 31 (4). The expression "directions" in the proviso could only refer ....
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.... Orchid Infrastructure Developers Pvt. Ltd. v. Principal Commissioner of Income-tax 2023 SCC OnLine Del 1915. 27. It becomes relevant to note that Orchid Infrastructure too constituted a challenge pertaining to a reassessment action initiated under Section 148 of the Act, notwithstanding a settlement having been ordered by the Income Tax Settlement Commission [ITSC] under Section 245D(4). The settlement had come to be rendered post the closure of assessment which itself was predicated upon a search and an order of assessment framed under Section 153A against the writ petitioners. There too, the respondents had sought to draw sustenance from the judgment in Abhisar Buildwell as well as the CBDT instructions which have been noticed above. 28. The Court in Orchid Infrastructure firstly bore in consideration the finality that comes to be attached to a settlement that may be rendered by the ITSC and observed as follows:- "28. Thus, considering the foregoing discussion, it is seen that the order of the Income-tax Settlement Commission is deemed to be conclusive for all the matters pertaining to the concerned assessment year for which the settlement application has been acc....
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....47 /148 of the Act. At this juncture, it is significant to extract section 150 of the Act, which reads as under: "150. Provision for cases where assessment is in pursuance of an order on appeal, etc.- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 149, the notice under section 148 may be issued at any time for the purpose of making an assessment or reassessment or recomputation in consequence of or to give effect to any finding or direction contained in an order passed by any authority in any proceeding under this Act by way of appeal, reference or revision or by a court in any proceeding under any other law. (2) The provisions of sub-section (1) shall not apply in any case where any such assessment, reassessment or recomputation as is referred to in that sub-section relates to an assessment year in respect of which an assessment, reassessment or recomputation could not have been made at the time the order which was the subject-matter of the appeal, reference or revision, as the case may be, was made by reason of any other provision limiting the time within which any action for assessment, reassessment or recomputation may be taken." 33. The aforesaid ....
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....of issue of notice for reassessment under section 148 (i.e.) if as on the date the assessment under section 153A or section 153C was passed, a notice under section 148 could have been issued as per the law then in force, then fresh proceedings for reassessment of such income not arising from the incriminating material found in search can now be initiated pursuant to the findings of this Hon'ble Court in the present appeals/application and may further clarify as follows: (i) That the findings in paras 11 and 14 would apply to all the proceedings pending in all the forums including before this Hon'ble Court. (ii) That even though the appeals of the Revenue are dismissed in respect of assessments passed under 153A and 153C, in the absence of incriminating material found during the search, in respect of such income which was found to have escaped assessment other than through incriminating material, the assessing officers would be entitled to reassess such income in terms of section 147/148 read with section 150. (iii) That the Assessing Officer, may if found necessary initiate fresh proceedings within 60 days from date of disposal of this application fol....
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....d at any time for the purpose of making an assessment or reassessment or recomputation in consequence of or to give effect to any finding or direction contained in an order passed by any authority in any proceeding under this Act by way of appeal, reference or revision [or by a Court in any proceeding under any other law]. (2) The provisions of sub-section (1) shall not apply in any case where any such assessment, reassessment or recomputation as is referred to in that sub-section relates to an assessment year in respect of which an assessment, reassessment or recomputation could not have been made at the time the order which was the subject-matter of the appeal, reference or revision, as the case may be, was made by reason of any other provision limiting the time within which any action for assessment, reassessment or recomputation may be taken." 32. Both Mr. Aggarwal as well as Mr. Gupta, learned counsels appearing for the respondents submitted that the Supreme Court in Abhisar Buildwell, being conscious of the amount of time which had been spent in the litigation which had ensued and the controversy surrounding the scope of search assessments had sought to salvage th....
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....to the six AYs' or the "relevant assessment year" pending on the date of search are statutorily envisaged to abate. Abatement is envisioned to be an inevitable consequence of the initiation of action under Section 153A. Neither issuance of notice nor abatement are predicated upon a formation of opinion by the AO of the searched person that the material is likely to impact the total income of that assessee. However, the spectre of abatement insofar as the "other person" is concerned would arise only after the jurisdictional AO has formed the requisite satisfaction of the material having "a bearing on the determination of the total income of such other person" and having formed the opinion that proceedings under Section 153C are liable to be initiated. It would be pertinent to bear in mind that Kabul Chawla was a decision rendered in the context of Section 153A. It was in the aforesaid backdrop that the Court significantly observed that once a search takes place under Section 132 of the Act, notice under Section 153A (1) would mandatorily issue. The abatement of assessment and reassessment pending on that date would, in the case of a Section 153A assessment, be a preordained cons....
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....mination of the total income of such other person" as appearing in Section 153C would necessarily have to be conferred pre-eminence. Therefore, and unless the AO is satisfied that the material gathered could potentially impact the determination of total income, it would be unjustified in mechanically reopening or assessing all over again all the ten AYs' that could possibly form part of the block of ten years. 52. The decisions which hold that an assessment is liable to be revised only if incriminating material be found, even if rendered in the context of Section 153A, would clearly govern the question that stands posited even in the context of Section 153C. It would be relevant to recall that the Division Bench in Kabul Chawla had observed that in the absence of any incriminating material, a completed assessment may be reiterated and the abated assessment or reassessment be concluded. The importance of incriminating material was further underlined in Kabul Chawla with the Court observing that completed assessments could be interfered with, only if some incriminating material were unearthed. This aspect came to be reiterated in RRJ Securities when the Court held that it wo....
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....ake for instance a case where the material gathered in the search is contemplated to have an adverse impact on the declarations and disclosures made by an assessee pertaining only to AYs' 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. What we seek to emphasise is that pending assessments for those two years could validly form subject matter of action under Section 153C and pending assessments in that respect would surely abate. However, that by itself would not be sufficient to either reopen or issue notices in respect of AYs' prior to or those falling after those two AYs' and which may otherwise fall within the maximum block period of ten years merely because the statute empowers the AO to do so. Unless the material gathered and recovered is found to have relevancy to the AY which is sought to be subjected to action under Section 153C, it would be legally impermissible for the respondents to invoke those provisions. Consequently, the AO would be bound to ascertain and identify the year to which the material recovered relates. The years which could be then subjected to action under Section 153C would have to necessarily be those in respect of which the assessment is likely to be influenced or impacted b....
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.... no remedy. It was thereafter observed in paragraph 36.4 of the report that insofar as completed or unabated assessments were concerned, they could be reopened by the AO by invocation of Sections 147/148 of the Act, subject to the fulfillment of the conditions "......as envisaged/mentioned under Sections 147/148 of the Act and those powers are saved". 40. It thus becomes apparent that the liberty which the Supreme Court accorded and the limited right inhering in the Revenue to initiate reassessment was subject to that power being otherwise compliant with the Chapter pertaining to reassessment as contained in the Act. The observations of the Supreme Court cannot possibly be read or construed as a carte blanche enabling the respondents to overcome and override the restrictions that otherwise appear in Section 149 of the Act. The observations of the Supreme Court in Abhisar Buildwell were thus intended to merely convey that the annulment of the search assessments would not deprive or denude the Revenue of its power to reassess and which independently existed. However, the Supreme Court being mindful of the statutory prescriptions, which otherwise imbue the commencement of reassessm....
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....ession "finding" as occurring in Section 150 of the Act is liable to be understood to be a conclusion or a decision of an authority or tribunal rendered in the context of a particular case and essential for determining the grant of relief. A "direction", we had held, would constitute one which an authority was empowered to issue under the Act. Tested on those precepts, we find ourselves unable to countenance the observations appearing in Abhisar Buildwell as amounting to a finding since the principal question in those appeals was with respect to the validity of the search assessments which were undertaken. The Supreme Court had, in order to balance equities, additionally observed that it would be open for the Revenue to commence reassessment, if otherwise permissible in law. That observation cannot be viewed as amounting to a direction which would enable the respondents to overcome the prescription of limitation which otherwise applied. 45. We had, in Sumitomo Corporation, also had an occasion to examine Section 153 of the Act, and which by virtue of Explanation 1 spells out the situations in which a particular period is liable to be excluded for the purposes of computing limita....
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....b-section shall have effect, as if for the words "nine months", the words "twelve months" had been substituted.] (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-sections (1) [,(1A)] and (2), an order of fresh assessment [or fresh order under section 92CA, as the case may be,] in pursuance of an order under section 254 or section 263 or section 264, setting aside or cancelling an assessment, [or an order under section 92CA, as the case may be] may be made at any time before the expiry of nine months from the end of the financial year in which the order under section 254 is received by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, or, as the case may be, the order under section 263 or section 264 is passed by the [Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, as the case may be,]: [Provided that where the order under section 254 is received by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner or, as the case may be, the order under section 263 or section 264 is passed by the [Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commission....
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....he Assessing Officer [or the Transfer Pricing Officer, as the case may be,] to give effect to such order within the aforesaid period, for reasons beyond his control, the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner on receipt of such request in writing from the Assessing Officer, [or the Transfer Pricing Officer, as the case may be,] if satisfied, may allow an additional period of six months to give effect to the order: [Provided further that where an order under section 250 or section 254 or section 260 or section 262 or section 263 or section 264 requires verification of any issue by way of submission of any document by the assessee or any other person or where an opportunity of being heard is to be provided to the assessee, the order giving effect to the said order under section 250 or section 254 or section 260 or section 262 or section 263 or section 264 shall be made within the time specified in sub-section (3).] [(5A) Where the Transfer Pricing Officer gives effect to an order or direction under section 263 by an order under section 92CA and forwards such order to the Assessing Officer, the Assessing Officer shall proceed to modify the order of assessment or reas....
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....s section as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2016, shall apply to and in relation to any order of assessment, reassessment or recomputation made before the 1st day of June, 2016: [Provided that where a notice under sub-section (1) of section 142 or sub-section (2) of section 143 or section 148 has been issued prior to the 1st day of June, 2016 and the assessment or reassessment has not been completed by such date due to exclusion of time referred to in Explanation 1, such assessment or reassessment shall be completed in accordance with the provisions of this section as it stood immediately before its substitution by the Finance Act, 2016 (28 of 2016).] Explanation 1.- For the purposes of this section, in computing the period of limitation- (i) the time taken in reopening the whole or any part of the proceeding or in giving an opportunity to the assessee to be re-heard under the proviso to section 129; or (ii) the period during which the assessment proceeding is stayed by an order or injunction of any court; or (iii) the period commencing from the date on which the Assessing Officer intimates the Central....
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.... an application is made before the Authority for Advance Rulings [or before the Board for Advance Rulings] under sub-section (1) of section 245Q and ending with the date on which the advance ruling pronounced by it is received by the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner under sub-section (7) of section 245R; or (x) the period commencing from the date on which a reference or first of the references for exchange of information is made by an authority competent under an agreement referred to in section 90 or section 90A and ending with the date on which the information requested is last received by the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner or a period of one year, whichever is less; or (xi) the period commencing from the date on which a reference for declaration of an arrangement to be an impermissible avoidance arrangement is received by the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner under sub-section (1) of section 144BA and ending on the date on which a direction under sub-section (3) or sub-section (6) or an order under sub-section (5) of the said section is received by the [Assessing Officer; or (xii) the period (not exceeding one hundred and eighty days....
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....A, the period of limitation available under this section to the Assessing Officer for making an order of assessment, reassessment or recomputation, as the case may be, shall, after the exclusion of the period under sub-section (4) of section 245HA, be not less than one year; and where such period of limitation is less than one year, it shall be deemed to have been extended to one year; and for the purposes of determining the period of limitation under sections 149, [* * *] 154, 155 and 158BE and for the purposes of payment of interest under section 244A, this proviso shall also apply accordingly: [Provided also that where the assessee exercises the option to withdraw the application under sub-section (1) of section 245M, the period of limitation available under this section to the Assessing Officer for making an order of assessment, reassessment or recomputation, as the case may be, shall, after the exclusion of the period under sub-section (5) of the said section, be not less than one year; and where such period of limitation is less than one year, it shall be deemed to have been extended to one year: Provided also that for the purposes of determining the period ....
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....tion 153A, is required to be issued in relation to a search initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets requisitioned under section 132A, on or before the 31st day of March, 2021:" 48. It is pertinent to note that both Sections 153A and 153C saw significant amendments which came to be made by virtue of Finance Act, 2021. Both those provisions saw the introduction of a sunset clause and the statute mandating that the scheme of search assessment as introduced in the Act originally by way of Finance Act, 2003 would cease to apply to a search initiated on or after 01 April 2021. 49. Notwithstanding the curtains thus being wrung down on Sections 153A and 153C, the Proviso to Section 149 (1) in unambiguous terms provides that in case reassessment is sought to be initiated for a relevant AY falling prior to 01 April 2021, such an action would have to be in conformity with the time limits specified in Sections 149 (1) (b), Sections 153A or 153C, whichever be applicable, and as those provisions stood immediately before the commencement of Finance Act, 2021. The Proviso is thus representative of a clear legislative policy of reassessments being requir....
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....ore, that the block periods would have to be reckoned with reference to the date of search can neither be countenanced nor accepted. E. The reckoning of the six AYs' would require one to firstly identify the FY in which the search was undertaken and which would lead to the ascertainment of the AY relevant to the previous year of search. The block of six AYs' would consequently be those which immediately precede the AY relevant to the year of search. In the case of a search assessment undertaken in terms of Section 153C, the solitary distinction would be that the previous year of search would stand substituted by the date or the year in which the books of accounts or documents and assets seized are handed over to the jurisdictional AO as opposed to the year of search which constitutes the basis for an assessment under Section 153A. F. While the identification and computation of the six AYs' hinges upon the phrase "immediately preceding the assessment year relevant to the previous year" of search, the ten year period would have to be reckoned from the 31st day of March of the AY relevant to the year of search. This, since undisputedly, Explanation 1 of Section 153A ....
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....rched entity, it is the date of hand over of material, as opposed to that of the actual search which would constitute the starting point for reckoning the block of six or ten AYs'. 14. However, Section 149 (1), as it came to be placed and introduced in the statute book by virtue of Finance Act, 2021, neither effaces nor removes from contemplation the First Proviso to Section 153C (1). Consequently, in cases where a search is conducted after 31 March 2021, the said Proviso would have to be construed and tested with reference to the date when the AO decides to initiate action against the non-searched entity. While in the case of a search initiated after 31 March 2021 there would be no actual hand over of material to the jurisdictional AO, that does not convince us to revert to Section 153A and hold that the block period is liable to be computed from the date of search. That, in our considered opinion, would amount to rewriting Section 153C which would clearly be impermissible. 15. We find ourselves unable to construe or read the First Proviso to Section 149 (1) as requiring us to ignore the First Proviso to Section 153C (1), and for the purposes of computation, ....