TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (4) TMI 1222
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....ET KAUR Assessment Year 2013-14 Notice under Section 148 of the Act [Pre-judgment dated 04.05.2022 rendered in the case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal] (Served on 02.07.2021) Annexure P-12 Surviving period/days before expiry of limitation on 30.06.2021 [Number of days computed by following formula: 30.06.2021 less date on which initial notice under section 148 was issued] Zero days Notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act [along with annexure number] 26.05.2022 Annexure P-7 Date on which reply was required to be filed as per notice issued under Section 148A(b) 11.06.2022 Date on which reply was filed by the assessee in response to the notice under section 148A(b) [along with annexure number] 08.06.2022 Annexure P-8 Last date to issue notice under section 148 after considering the surviving period 08.06.2022 Last date to issue notice under Section 148 after considering fourth proviso to section 149 15.06.2022 Order under Section 148A(d) of the Act 23.07.2022 Annexure P-9 Notice under Section 148 of the Act 23.07.2022 Annexure P-10 Applicability of Rajiv....
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....Agarwal, and that being 04 May 2022, would also be liable to be excluded in light of the Third Proviso to Section 149(1). 16. The third period which was factored in was the date when material in support of the formation of opinion of income having escaped assessment would have been provided to the assessee and the time for furnishing of objections, and which too as the Supreme Court holds in Rajeev Bansal is liable to be excluded. 17. It is the aforenoted three periods which are thus liable to be added to the date when the notice for reassessment was issued in order to answer the question as to whether the reassessment notices could be said to be barred by the timelines as prescribed by Section 149 of the Act. 18. The surviving period with which Question 'A' is concerned, was lucidly explained by the Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal, and we thus deem it apposite to extract the following passages from that decision:- "110. The effect of the creation of the legal fiction in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [(2022) 444 ITR 1 (SC); (2023) 1 SCC 617.] was that it stopped the clock of limitation with effect from the date of issuance of section 148 notice....
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.... 113. In Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [(2022) 444 ITR 1 (SC); (2023) 1 SCC 617.], this court allowed the assessees to avail of all the defences, including the defence of expiry of the time limit specified under section 149(1). In the instant appeals, the reassessment notices pertain to the assessment years 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018. To assume jurisdiction to issue notices under section 148 with respect to the relevant assessment years, an Assessing Officer has to : (i) issue the notices within the period prescribed under section 149(1) of the new regime read with Taxation and other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020; and (ii) obtain the previous approval of the authority specified under section 151. A notice issued without complying with the preconditions is invalid as it affects the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer. Therefore, the reassessment notices issued under section 148 of the new regime, which are in pursuance of the deemed notices, ought to be issued within the time limit surviving under the Income-tax Act read with Taxation and other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 20....
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....on began running from that date. 69. As noted above, by virtue of TOLA, the AO had period of twenty-nine days limitation left on the date of commencement of the reassessment proceedings, which began on 01.06.2021, to issue a notice under Section 148 of the Act. The said notice was required to be accompanied by an order under Section 148A(d) of the Act. Thus, the AO was required to pass an order under Section 148A(d) of the Act within the said twenty-nine days notwithstanding the time stipulated under Section 148A(d) of the Act. This period expired on 12.07.2022 70. Since the period of limitation, as provided under Section 149(1) of the Act, had expired period to issuance of the impugned notice on 20.07.2022. the said is squarely beyond the period of limitation. 20. The Court in Ram Balram was concerned with a notice for reassessment which had come to be issued on 01 June 2021 and thus falling within the broad Section 3(1) TOLA period of 20 March 2020 to 30 June 2021. The Court thus firstly proceeded to exclude the 29 days period falling between 01 June 2021 to 30 June 2021. 21. It proceeded further to then factor in the period commencing from 01 ....