2025 (9) TMI 949

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....3. 2. At the threshold, it is noted that the appeal has been filed belatedly with a delay of 55 days. The assessee has moved a petition for condonation of delay accompanied by an affidavit. It is explained therein that though the order of the learned CIT(A) was passed on 17/03/2025, it was made available on the income-tax portal only on 17/08/2025. The appellant company had already been struck off by the Registrar of Companies w.e.f. 23/06/2017 owing to cessation of operations, and the erstwhile director, being advanced in age and suffering from health ailments, faced genuine difficulties in collating records to file the appeal. It is also brought to our notice that there was an extraordinary delay of nearly seven years on the part of th....

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....lieve that income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment and accordingly issued notice under section 148 dated 27/03/2018. 7. However, all notices issued thereafter were returned unserved with postal remarks of "left". Electronic notices also remained unresponded. Consequently, the Assessing Officer framed reassessment ex parte under section 144, treating the entire value of the property, i.e., Rs.1.12 crore, as undisclosed income. The learned CIT(A) too sustained the addition, again ex parte, without adjudicating on merits. 8. Before us, the learned counsel for the assessee submitted that since the company was struck off and dissolved on 23/06/2017, no valid notice under section 148 could have been issued on 27/03/2018. An assessme....

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....ssing Officer, neither in physical ink nor through digital authentication. The demand notice, too, is devoid of any such attestation, except for a mechanically typed date. It is a fundamental principle that an order derives its very existence and legal sanctity from the signature of the authority who purports to pass it. The act of signing is not a mere formality but a solemn affirmation of authorship, accountability, and authority. In the absence of such authentication, the so-called order remains an unsigned draft, incapable of assuming the character of a binding or enforceable assessment. The law is clear that an unsigned order is no order in the eye of law and it is as if no order has ever been passed. In the course of hearing, we speci....

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.... of which independently renders it unsustainable. 12. Even assuming for a moment that the assessment was otherwise valid, the addition made does not withstand the scrutiny of facts. The material placed before us demonstrates beyond cavil that the sale deed for the property in question was executed on 21/01/2011. The consideration was also received during the financial year 2010-11. It is trite law that the chargeability of capital gains arises in the year in which the transfer is effected within the meaning of section 2(47) of the Act. Since the transfer was completed in January 2011, the relevant assessment year would be 2011-12. There was therefore no occasion for taxing the same in A.Y. 2012-13. The entire edifice of addition of Rs.1,....