TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (8) TMI 139
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....r the Learned AO was justified in framing of re-assessment under section 147 of the Act by applying the old provisions of the Act i.e as it stood upto 31.3.2021 in the facts and circumstances of the instant case. 3. We have heard the rival submissions and perused the materials available on record. The assessee is a salaried employee and has been regularly filing his Returns of Income. The case of the assessee was sought to be reopened by the Learned AO under section 147 of the Act on the basis of information received from DCIT, Central Circle-26 and accordingly a notice under section 148 of the Act dated 31-3-2021 has been issued to the assessee on 1-4-2021 vide email at 7.20 a.m.. The evidence of notice under section 148 of the Act being issued to the assessee by email is enclosed in page 5 of the paper book. The notice issued by the Learned AO under section 148 of the Act dated 31-3-2021 issued to the assessee on 1-4-2021 ultimately culminated in framing of reassessment order under section 147 of the Act dated 28-3-2022. This goes to prove that the Learned AO had framed the entire reassessment order under the old provisions of the Act as it stood prior to 1-4-2021 under sectio....
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....initially issued. The Revenue Authorities in that case claimed that the notice under Section 148 of the Act dated 31-3-2021 was in fact issued on 1-4-2021 and therefore is required to be treated as a show-cause notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act in terms of the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal referred supra. In that case also, the notice under Section 148 of the Act dated 31-3-2021 was despatched to that petitioner by e-mail on 1-4-2021 at 7:30:47 AM and delivered at 7:30:48 AM. In those facts and circumstances, the Hon'ble Delhi High Court held as under:- "17. Section 149(1) of the Act proscribes issuance of notice beyond the period as stipulated in the said section. In Suman Jeet Agarwal v. Income Tax Officer and Ors.: (2022) 449 ITR 517, the Coordinate Bench of this Court had considered the question regarding as to the date of issue of a notice under Section 148 of the Act for ascertaining the period of limitation for issuance of such a notice. We consider it apposite to refer to the following extracts of the said decision: "25. Question No. (I) : Whether the jurisdictional Assessing Officer's act o....
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....impugned notices were not issued on March 31, 2021. ***** 25.18. Additionally, the contention of the counsel for the Department that generation of section 148 notice on the Income Tax Business Application screen amounts to "issued" within the meaning of section 149 of the Act of 1961 is not borne out from the instructions issued by the Directorate of Income-tax (Systems). On the contrary, the said circulars duly recognize that after generation of notice the concerned Income-tax authority is required to take overt steps for issuing the said notice to the assessee. The circulars use the words "generation" and "issuance" distinctively. In this regard reference may be made illustratively to the following instructions : (a) The Income Tax Business Application Assessment Instruction No. 2 (F. No. System/Income Tax Business Application/Instruction/Assessment/ 16-17/177, dated August 1, 2016) issued by the Directorate of Income-tax (System) mentions that : "the Assessing Officer Staff/Assessing Officer Inspector will not be able to generate the notice but will be able to view the notices already generated by the Assessing Officer for taking a printout of....
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....d document identification number (DIN) has been allotted and is duly quoted in the body of' such communication." (emphasis supplied) In fact, in several cases, we take judicial notice that even as on date the jurisdictional Assessing Officers issue notices which do not have document identification number and in those cases the Department contends that the absence of the document identification number does not make those notices invalid." 18. Clearly, the date of notice is vital for determining the rights of the parties and there can be no uncertainty regarding the date of issuance of notice. It is, thus necessary that the date of issue of notice be ascertained on completion of the precise steps for issuance of the notice. In terms of the decision of this Court in Suman Jeet Agarwal v. Income Tax Officer and Ors. (supra), as noted above, where the notice is sent electronically, the date of dispatch of the e-mail is to be considered as the date of issue of the notice. Thus, in this case the date of issue of notice would have to be taken as 01.04.2021. 19. As stated at the outset, if there is no dispute that the date of issuance of notice is considere....