TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (9) TMI 651
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....en grounds of appeal but I will first take up the legal issue raising ground No. 1 challenging the validity of the re-assessment proceedings as no valid approval u/s 151 of the act has been obtained by the Assessing Officer (AO) for issuing notice u/s 148 of the Act. 3. At the outset Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the assessment for A.Y. 2017-18 has been reopened by issuance of notice u/s 148 of the Act on 20.07.2022 and for issuing such notice a proper approval u/s 151 of the Act needs to be taken and Ld. AO has obtained the approval from Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Nashik dated 15.07.2022. He submitted that since the notice has been issued beyond three years from the end of assessment year the specific approval a....
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....the Act has not been issued because no proper approval u/s 151 of the Act has been taken. Ld. Counsel for the assessee has referred and relied on plethora of decisions and judgements. I would however like to refer to the judgement of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras in the case of Core Logistic Company (Supra) wherein Hon'ble Court dealing with the very same issue has held as under:- 5. 1 have given due considerations to the submissions made on either side and perused the materials available on record. 6. In the present case, the issue is pertaining to the asst. yr. 2016-2017. The relevant law applicable for issuance of notice under s. 148 is as follows: "148. Before making the assessment, reassessment or re-compu....
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....tion in the case of the assessee for the relevant assessment year in accordance with the risk management strategy formulated by the Board from time to time; (ii) any audit objection to the effect that the assessment in the case of the assessee for the relevant assessment year has not been made in accordance with the provisions of this Act, or (iii) any information received under an agreement referred to in s. 90 or s. 90A of the Act; or (iv) any information made available to the AO under the scheme notified under s. 135A or (v) any information which requires action in consequence of the order of a Tribunal or a Court Explanation. 2 For the purposes of this section, where,- (1) a search i....
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....section, specified authority means the specified authority referred to in s. 151." 7. A perusal of the above provision would show that, before issuing any notice under s. 148, the AO has to obtain prior approval of the specified authority to issue such notice. The specified authority is also defined in explanation of the above provision. As per the above provision, specified authority is the authority who referred to in s. 151. 8. At this juncture, it would be relevant to extract the provision of s. 151, which is as follows: "Specified authority for the purposes of s. 148 and s. 148A shall be: (1) Principal CIT or Principal Director or CIT or Director, if three years or less than three years have elapsed ....
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....rd respondent dt. 30th May, 2023 is hereby quashed. 11. In the result, this writ petition stands allowed. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petitions are closed. 6. Now examining the facts of the instant case, in the light of the above judgement I notice that the notices u/s 148 of the Act for carrying out the reassessment proceedings for A.Y. 2017-18 has been issued on 20.07.2022. Also the first notice u/s 148A(b) has been issued on 26.05.2022. Therefore the notices u/s 148 of the Act has been issued after three years from the end of the Assessment Year. Now since the notice has been issued after three years from the end of A.Y. 2017-18, Ld. AO is required to take approval u/s 151 of the Act from Principal Chief Commissione....