TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (7) TMI 447
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....6 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for quashing and setting aside the notice dated 31.03.2021 issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short "the Act") for the Assessment Year 2013-14 as well as the Assessment Order dated 30.03.2022 passed by the respondent - Assessing Officer under Section 147 read with Section 144B of the Act during the pendency of this petition. 5. The brief facts of the case are as under: 5.1. The petitioner filed Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2013-14 declaring its gross total income as 'NIL' on 28.09.2013. The respondent has issued notice dated 31.03.2021 under Section 148 of the Act under the provisions of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (for short "the TOLA". It is the case of the petitioner that neither the notice dated 31.03.2021 was uploaded on ITBA portal nor sent to the petitioner through E-mail or speed post on or before 31.03.2021, but the physical copy of the notice was received by the petitioner on 06.04.2021. It is also the case of the petitioner that the web portal does not bear the date of issuance of the impugned notice and it only ref....
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....o issue the notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act by providing an opportunity to the petitioner to file its reply and thereafter pass an order under Section 148A(d) of the Act as per the direction issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal reported in 444 ITR 1 and thereafter the respondents were required to follow the directions of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Union of India and Ors. v. Rajeev Bansal reported in [2024] 469 ITR 46. It was submitted that admittedly the respondent Assessing Officer has not followed directions issued in the aforesaid two decisions and as such the impugned notice has to be treated as time barred notice. 6.1. Learned advocate Mr. Soparkar referred to and relied upon paragraph '11' of the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Ashish Agarwal (supra) to point out that the Hon'ble Apex Court has categorically stated that all the pending writ petitions would be governed by the direction issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court under Article 142 of the Constitution of India and therefore, the stay granted by this Court would be subject to directions issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court. 7. On the other hand, lear....
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....ell as in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra) would have to be adhered to. 9. Considering the above undisputed facts, it would be germane to refer to the relevant portion of the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Ashish Agarwal (supra): "11. The present order shall be applicable PAN INDIA and all judgments and orders passed by different High Courts on the issue and under which similar notices which were issued after 01.04.2021 issued under section 148 of the Act are set aside and shall be governed by the present order and shall stand modified to the aforesaid extent. The present order is passed in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India so as to avoid any further appeals by the Revenue on the very issue by challenging similar judgments and orders, with a view not to burden this Court with approximately 9000 appeals. We also observe that present order shall also govern the pending writ petitions, pending before various High Courts in which similar notices under Section 148 of the Act issued after 01.04.2021 are under challenge." 10. The Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra) has further extended and explained the decision of....
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....ecision in Ashish Agarwal (supra), that is, 4 May 2022. 106. In Ashish Agarwal (supra), this Court directed the assessing officers to provide relevant information and materials relied upon by the Revenue to the assesses within thirty days from the date of the judgment. A show cause notice is effectively issued in terms of Section 148A(b) only if it is supplied along with the relevant information and material by the assessing officer. Due to the legal fiction, the assessing officers were deemed to have been inhibited from acting in pursuance of the Section 148A(b) notice till the relevant material was supplied to the assesses. Therefore, the show cause notices were deemed to have been stayed until the assessing officers provided the relevant information or material to the assesses in terms of the direction issued in Ashish Agarwal (supra). To summarize, the combined effect of the legal fiction and the directions issued by this Court in Ashish Agarwal (supra) is that the show cause notices that were deemed to have been issued during the period between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021 were stayed till the date of supply of the relevant information and material by the assessing o....
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.... from the fiction. 112. Let us take the instance of a notice issued on 1 May 2021 under the old regime for a relevant assessment year. Because of the legal fiction, the deemed show cause notices will also come into effect from 1 May 2021. After accounting for all the exclusions, the assessing officer will have sixty-one days [days between 1 May 2021 and 30 June 2021] to issue a notice under Section 148 of the new regime. This time starts ticking for the assessing officer after receiving the response of the assessee. In this instance, if the assessee submits the response on 18 June 2022, the assessing officer will have sixty-one days from 18 June 2022 to issue a reassessment notice under Section 148 of the new regime. Thus, in this illustration, the time limit for issuance of a notice under Section 148 of the new regime will end on 18 August 2022. 113. In Ashish Agarwal (supra), this Court allowed the assesses to avail 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 ....