TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (1) TMI 1404
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.... "FOR THAT in the facts and circumstances of the instant case, the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-NFAC acted unlawfully in not appreciating that none of the conditions precedent existed for and/or were fulfilled by the Ld. Income Tax Officer, Ward-24(1), Hooghly for his specious action of framing the assessment order u/s 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on 26-12-2019 in the instant case de hors any notice u/s 143(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and without complying to the mandatory tenets of s. 127 of the Act and the impugned inaction on that account renders the assessment order framed ab initio void, ultra vires and null in law". 3. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee filed his return of income u/s 139(4) of the Act on 25.03.2018 disclosing total income of Rs. 8,30,210/-. The assessee shown a sum of Rs. 6,26,486/- as his agricultural income and claimed the same to be exempt from taxation. However, the Assessing Officer only considered a sum of Rs. 73,530/- as agricultural income of the assessee and made the impugned addition of the remaining amount of Rs. 5,52,956/- treating the same as income from undisposed sources. 4. The assessee has contested th....
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....sessing Officer, the said notice did not have any legal sanctity and consequent to such an invalid notice, the impugned assessment framed u/s 143(3) was bad in law. The ld. Counsel has submitted that the issue is squarely covered by the recent decision of the jurisdictional Hon'ble Calcutta High Court in the case of PCIT vs. Shree Shoppers Ltd. in ITAT/39/2023 in IA No.GA/1/2023 dated 15.03.2023. The ld. Counsel for the assessee has further relied on the decision of the Coordinate 'C' Bench of the Tribunal in the case of M/s J R Roadlines Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT in ITA No.2534/Kol/2019 order dated 27.05.2022. The relevant part of the order of the Tribunal is reproduced as under: "4. At the outset, the ld. counsel for the assessee has invited our attention to the impugned assessment order to show that in the opening lines of the assessment order itself, it has been mentioned that the assessee had shown a total income of Rs. 2,07,18,275/- in the return of income filed on 11.09.2012 for the assessment year under consideration. The ld. Counsel has further submitted that as per the relevant statutory provisions not only the territorial jurisdiction but also the pecuniary jurisdictio....
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....143(2) of the Act. The ld. DR could not rebut the aforesaid legal position based on aforesaid factual aspect put by the ld. counsel for the assessee. However, she has relied upon the findings given by the Assessing Officer in the assessment order. 5. We have considered the rival contentions of ld. representatives of both the parties and gone through the records. Before proceeding further, it will be appropriate to refer to section 120 of the Act which, for the sake of ready reference, is reproduced as under: "Jurisdiction of income- tax authorities (1) Income- tax authorities shall exercise all or any of the powers and perform all or any of the functions Conferred on, or, as the case may be, assigned to such authorities by or under this Act in accordance with such directions as the Board may issue for the exercise of the powers and performance of the functions by all or any of those authorities. [Explanation.- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that any income-tax authority, being an authority higher in rank, may, if so directed by the Board, exercise the powers and perform the functions of the income-tax authority lower in....
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....0 lacs Non-corporate returns Upto Rs. 15 lacs Above Rs. 15 lacs Upto Rs. 20 lacs Above Rs. 20 lacs Metro charges for the purpose of above instructions shall be Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. The above instructions are issued in supersession of the earlier instructions and shall be applicable with effect from 1-4-2011." 7. A perusal of the above provisions of law along with the CBDT Instructions would show, in this case, the competent officer to proceed with the assessment by way of issue of notice u/s 143(2) of the Act was DCIT/ACIT, whereas, the notice u/s 143(2) has been issued by the ITO, Ward-1(1), Kolkata who did not have any jurisdiction to issue the aforesaid notice. As has been held by the various courts of the country including the Apex Court, the issuance of notice u/s 143(2) by the concerned Assessing Officer of a competent jurisdiction is mandatory to assume jurisdiction to proceed to frame assessment u/s 143(3) of the Act. The identical issue also came into consideration before the Coordinate Bench of the Tribunal in the case of Bhagyalaxmi Conclave (P) Ltd. v. DCIT [IT Appeal No.2517....
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....corporate assessee and the income returned is above Rs. 15,00,000/- and whereas, the statutory notice u/s 143(2) of the Act, was issued on 29/09/2016, by the Income Tax Officer, ward-1(1), Durgapur, who had no jurisdiction of the case. He submitted that the assessment order was passed by the ACIT, Circle-1(1), Durgapur, who had the jurisdiction over the assessee, but he had not issued the notice u/s 143(2) of the Act, within the statutory period prescribed under the Act. Thus, he submits that the assessment is bad in law. 5.1. On merits, he rebutted the findings of the lower authorities. The ld. Counsel for the assessee relied on certain case-law, which I would be referring to as and when necessary. 6. The ld. D/R, on the other hand, submitted that the concurrent jurisdiction vests with the ITO as well as the ACIT and hence the assessment cannot be annulled simply because the statutory notice u/s 143(2) of the Act, was issued by the ITO and the assessment was completed by the ACIT. He further submitted that the assessee did not object to the issue of notice before the jurisdictional Assessing Officer and even otherwise, Section 292BB of the Act, comes into play an....
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....ITO issued notice under section 143(2) of the Act on 06.09.2013. ii) The ITO, Ward-1, Haldia taking note that the income returned was above Rs. 15 lacs transferred the case to ACIT, Circle-27, Haldia on 24.09.2014. iii) On 24.09.2014 statutory notices for scrutiny were issued by ACIT, Circle-27, Haldia. 6. We note that the CBDT Instruction is dated 31.01.2011 and the assessee has filed the return of income on 29.03.2013 declaring total income of Rs. 50,28,040/-. As per the CBDT Instruction the monetary limits in respect to an assessee who is an individual which falls under the category of 'non corporate returns' the ITO's increased monetary limit was upto Rs. 15 lacs; and if the returned income is above Rs. 15 lacs it was the AC/DC. So, since the returned income by assessee an individual is above Rs. 15 lakh, then the jurisdiction to assess the assessee lies only by AC/DC and not ITO. So, therefore, only the AC/DC had the jurisdiction to assess the assessee. It is settled law that serving of notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act is a sine qua non for an assessment to be made u/s. 143(3) of the Act. In this case, notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act was issue....
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.... - I, reported in [2005] 278 ITR 218 (Cal.) has held as follows:- "Section 254 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Appellate Tribunal - Powers of - Assessment years 1983-84 to 1987- 88 - Whether a question of law arising out of facts found by authorities and which went to root of jurisdiction can be raised for first time before Tribunal - Held, yes Whether jurisdiction of Assessing Authority is not dependent on date of accrual of cause of action but on date when it is initiated - Held, yes - Whether once a particular jurisdiction is created, same must be prospective and cannot be retrospective and it has to be interpreted having regard to manner in which it has been sought to be created - Held, yes - Assessee" 9.3. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT vs. Laxman Das Khandelwal [2019] 108 taxmann.com 183 (SC), held as follows:- "7. A closer look at Section 292BB shows that if the assessee has participated in the proceedings it shall be deemed that any notice which is required to be served upon was duly served and the assessee would be precluded from taking any objections that the notice was (a) not served upon him; or (b) not served upon him in time; or ....
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....l assessing officer, I am of the view that I need not adjudicate this issue, as I have held that non-issual of statutory notice/s 143(2) of the Act by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer makes the assessment bad in law. Under these circumstances, we allow this appeal of the assessee." 6. Respectfully following the propositions of law laid down in these orders stated above, we hold that the orders are bad in law for the reason that the assessing authority passed the order u/s 143(3) of the Act i.e. DCIT-13(1), Kolkata has not issued a notice u/s 143(2) of the Act and also for the reason that the jurisdiction of these cases lies with the ITO and not the DCIT. Hence all the orders passed by the ld. CIT(A) in these four cases are hereby quashed and the appeals of the assessees are allowed." 8. In view of above discussion made and in the light of the various case laws, the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer (DCIT) was bad in law for want of issuance of notice u/s 143(2) of the Act." 6. The ld. Counsel for the assessee has further relied on the decision of the Coordinate 'SMC' Bench of the Tribunal in the case of Shivam Finance vs. ACIT in ITA No.422/K....
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....d the factual findings of the Tribunal which is reproduced as under: "The short issue which falls for consideration in the instant case is whether there is valid notice issued under Section 143 (2) of the Act for commencing the Scrutiny assessment. The Tribunal has noted the facts and rendered a finding that on the date when the case was selected for scrutiny, the authority who issued the notice namely, the Income Tax Officer, Ward No.9 (4), Kolkala did not have jurisdiction and the jurisdiction was with the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax. The following factual finding has been recorded by the Tribunal : "Therefore, the legal ground stands to be admitted and the same re1ates to invalid notice issued u/ 143(2) of the Act. It is a settled position of law that for carrying out the assessment proceedings u/s. 143(3) of the Act, the statutory requirement of serving of valid notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act is must and in absence thereof the subsequent proceedings become invalid. In the case of assessee, the facts are that the assessee has declared income of Rs. 48,47,180/- in the e-return filed on 26.09.2012. For selecting the case for scrutiny notice u/s. 143(2) of th....
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....r the assessee is the returned income which was more than Rs. 30 lakhs and the same was lying with the DCs/ACs but the notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act has been issued by ITO, Ward 49(1), Kolkata. It is true that subsequently the assessment has been framed by ACIT, Circ1e-49, Kolkata but the point in dispute is that on the date of issuing a notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act, whether the ITO, Ward- 49(1), Kolkata was having a valid jurisdiction to issue such notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act. We find that Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in the recent judgment in the case of PCIT Vs. Shree Shoppers Ltd. (supra) has decided identical issue in favour of the assessee. 9. Thus, from the perusal of the findings given by Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court and from the examination of facts of the present case, we find that the aforesaid judgment of the Hon'ble High Court is squarely applicable on the facts of the present case. We thus, unhesitatingly hold that ITO, Ward-49(1), Kolkata had no valid jurisdiction over the assessee on the date of issuing notice u/s. 143(2) of the Act. Revenue has not controverted this fact by placing any other contrary material on record to indicate otherwis....