TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (2) TMI 1235
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....r directions quashing the impugned order passed u/s 148A(d) of the Act dated 30.05.2022 by respondent /JAO being made in totally "abdicated" manner on mere dictate and directions of PCIT(C) as evident from noting (s) on case order sheet ; B. Issue of a writ of certiorari or an order quashing the impugned notice purportedly issued u/s 148 of the act dated 30.05.2022 based on unlawful order passed u/s 148A(d) and non-existing/ "discharged" SCN issued u/s 148A(b) of the 1961 Act . C. Issue of a writ of certiorari or an order quashing the impugned action of respondent/JAO in mechanically/irrationally deciding u/s 148A(d) of 1961 Act that extant case is a fit case for issue of notice u/s 148 of 1961 Act; D. Issue a wri....
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....sputedly, we are in this writ petition concerned with Assessment Year [AY 2018-19] 2018-19 and in respect of which the notice under Section 148 of the Act ultimately came to be issued on 30 May 2022. It is thus apparent that the action has come to be initiated after the expiry of three years from the end of the relevant AY. It is in the aforesaid context that the petitioner contends that the sanction accorded by the PCIT would not sustain. 5. In cases where reassessment is sought to be commenced after the lapse of three years from the end of the relevant AY, undisputedly, it would be the Principal Chief Commissioner who would be liable to be recognised as being the competent authority. Viewed in that light, it is apparent that the reasse....
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....edly, the date of March 31, 2021 came to be extended thereafter up to April 30, 2021 and lastly up to June 30, 2021. 34. Concededly, the Finance Act, 2021 was enacted thereafter and came into effect from April 1, 2021. It is admitted by the respondents that the terminal point for initiation of reassessment for the assessment year 20152016 in ordinary circumstances would have been March 31, 2020 and that date clearly fell within the period spoken of in section 3 of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act. The period for issuance of notice for the assessment year 2015-2016, thus and principally speaking, stood extended up to June 30, 2021. 35. However, the key to answering the argumen....
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....ction or authority upon an officer under a specified enactment. On a fundamental plane, it was a remedial measure aimed at overcoming a position of irretrievable and irreversible consequences which were likely to befall during the nationwide lockdown. It was principally aimed at enabling authorities to take and commence action within the extended timelines that the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act introduced. However, it neither altered nor modified or amended the distribution of functions, the command structure or the distribution of powers under a specified Act. It was in that light that we had spoken of the carving or conferral of a new or altered jurisdiction. 38. It would therefore b....
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....f specified authorities based upon the lapse of time between the end of the relevant assessment year and the date when reassessment was proposed. Thus even if the reassessment was proposed to be initiated with the aid of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act after the expiry of four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, the authority statutorily empowered to confer approval would be the Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner/Principal Commissioner/Commissioner. It would only be in a case where the reassessment was proposed to be initiated before the expiry of four years from the end of the relevant assessment year that approval could have been accorded by the Joint Commission....
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.... unable to sustain the grant of approval by the Joint Commissioner of Income-tax. 41. It is pertinent to note that the respondents had feebly sought to urge that the use of the expression "sanction" in section 3 of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act also merits due consideration and is liable to be read as supportive of the contentions that were addressed on their behalf. The argument is however clearly meritless when one bears in consideration the indisputable fact that the set of provisions with which we are concerned nowhere prescribe a timeframe within which sanction is liable to be accorded. "Sanction" when used in section 3 of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment ....