TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (12) TMI 1265
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....ax Act, 1961 (hereafter the Act); an order dated 31.08.2024 (hereafter the impugned order) passed under Section 148A (d) of the Act pursuant to the said notice; and a notice dated 31.08.2024 issued under Section 148 of the Act, in respect of assessment year (AY) 2014-15. 2. The petitioner's challenge to the notices dated 23.08.2024 and 31.08.2024 (hereafter the impugned notices) and the impugned order is founded on several grounds, however, the learned counsel for the petitioner has confined the present petition to challenging the initiation of the reassessment proceedings as being barred by limitation. 3. A plain reading of the impugned notice dated 23.08.2024 issued under Section 148A (b) of the Act, indicates that the assessing officer....
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....at that time on account of being beyond the time limit specified under the provisions of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of this section or section 153A or section 153C, as the case may be as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2021" 8. A notice for reopening assessment for AY 2014-15 could not be issued beyond the period of six years from the said date. However, since the initiation of reassessment proceedings are premised on material containing information allegedly pertaining to the petitioner, the assessments/reassessment could be initiated under Section 153C of the Act 9. The learned counsel for the Revenue does not dispute that the case stands covered in favour of the petitioner by the case of Dinesh Jin....
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....ase and which is concerned with a search, also those which would be applicable by virtue of the provisions of Section 153A and 153C. 10. Undisputedly, and if the validity of the reassessment were to be tested on the anvil of Section 153C, the petitioner would be entitled to succeed for the following reasons. It is an undisputed fact that the proceedings under Section 148 commenced on the basis of the impugned notice dated 30 March 2023. This date would be of seminal importance since the period of six AYs or the "relevant assessment year" would have to be reckoned from the date when action was initiated to reopen the assessment pertaining to the AY 2013-2014. 11.The computation of the six or the block of ten AYs was explained by us in Oj....
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.... therefore, 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 assessment year 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 account or documents and assets seized are handed over to the jur....
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.... which undisputedly was the date from when the Finance Act, 2021 came into effect. 13. While it is true that Section 153C and the procedure prescribed therein had ceased to be applicable post 31 March 2021, the First Proviso to Section 149 (1) does not appear to suggest that the First Proviso to Section 153C (1) would either become inapplicable or be liable to be ignored. Undisputedly, the First Proviso to Section 153C (1), by virtue of a legal fiction enshrined therein requires one to treat the date of initiation of search, and which otherwise constitutes the commencement point for a search assessment in the case of a non-searched party, to be construed as the date when the books of account or documents and assets seized or requisitioned....
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....rom the date of search. That, in our considered opinion, would amount to rewriting section 153C which would clearly be impermissible. [emphasis added] 10. The learned counsel for the Revenue had also contended that the date of placing the material on the insight portal ought to be considered the date of search for the purposes of computing limitation under Section 153C of the Act. However, prima facie, the same is contrary to the decision in Dinesh Jindal v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle 20, Delhi & Others: (supra). It is to be noted that in said case, this court had reasoned that in case of a search after 31.03.2021, there would be no actual handover of material to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer and therefore....