TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (12) TMI 65
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....are that the assessee had filed its return of income for the A.Y. 2014-15 on 02.08.2022 declaring Nil income. The case of the assessee was reopened vide issue of notice u/s 148 of the Act dated 30.06.2021, to examine the credit entries of Rs. 4,34,67,000/- appearing in the bank account of the assessee with IDBI Bank. The assessee had approached the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court against the said notice u/s 148 of the Act, which was quashed by the Hon'ble High Court. Thereafter, the Department in consequence to the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Ashish Agarwal and others that the notice u/s 148 of the Act issued under the old provisions shall be treated as show cause notice in terms of Section 148A(b) of the Act, had acted further. The Assessing Officer had issued a notice u/s 148A(b) of the Act on 24.05.2022 which was complied by the assessee. Thereafter, a fresh notice u/s 148 of the Act was issued by the Assessing Officer on 27.07.2022, after passing an order u/s 148A(d) of the Act on the same day. In the course of assessment proceeding, the Assessing Officer had treated the entire credit entries appearing in the bank account of the assessee as unexplained and ....
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....period from 01.04.2021 to 30.06.2021, were deemed to be notice issued u/s 148A(b) of the Act, as amended by the Finance Act 2021. Further, directions were issued to supply the materials within 30 days and grant further 15 days' time to the assessee to reply to such notice before passing the order u/s 148A(d) of the Act. The Ld. AR explained that in the present case, the assessee was supplied materials on 31.05.2022 in terms of Section 148A(b) of the Act to which the assessee had submitted reply on 07.06.2022. Thereafter, the order u/s 148A(d) of the Act was passed by the Assessing Officer on 27.07.2022. According to the assessee, this order u/s 148A(d) of the Act and the fresh notice u/s 148 of the Act issued on 27.07.2022, were barred by limitation. 7.1 The Ld. AR explained that as per the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India vs. Rajeev Bansal (2024) 167 taxmann.com 70 (SC), the order u/s 148A(d) of the Act was required to be passed and notice u/s 148 of the Act under the new regime was required to be issued within the time limit surviving under the Income Tax Act read with TOLA. He explained that since the original notice u/s 148 of the Act was issue....
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....nd the period of seven days from its reply on 07.06.2022 and thus the notice was barred by limitation. 11. The Hon'ble Supreme Court, in the case of Ashish Agarwal (supra), had directed that all the notices u/s 148 of the Act issued under the old provision shall be treated as show cause notice issued u/s 148A(b) of the Act of the new provisions. Further, the Hon'ble Court had directed the assessing officers to supply the assesses with the relevant material and information relied upon by the Revenue within thirty days from the date of the judgment. The effect of this direction was summarized by the Apex Court in the case of Rajeev Bansal [2024] 167 taxmann.com 70/301 Taxman 238/469 ITR 46 (SC) as under: 106. .....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 officer to the assessee. After the supply of the relevant material and information to the assessee, time begins to run for the ....
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....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 jurisdiction to issue notices under Section 148 with respect to the relevant assessmen....
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....Court to pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it. The discretionary jurisdiction exercised by this Court under Article 142 is of the widest amplitude. The Constitution has left it to the judicial discretion of this Court to decide the scope and limits of its jurisdiction to render substantial justice in matters coming before it. The expression "any cause or matter" mentioned under Article 142 includes every kind of proceeding pending before this Court. Article 142 allows this Court to give precedence to equity over law, provided the exercise of the discretion is consistent with constitutional provisions and after due consideration of substantive provisions in statutory law. The Hon'ble Court further held that the exercise of the jurisdiction under Article 142 is meant to supplement the existing legal framework to do complete justice between the parties. Further that in a given circumstance, the Apex Court can supplement a legal framework to craft a just outcome when strict adherence to a source of law and exclusive rule-based theories creates inequitable results. Therefore, the law as declared by the....
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....viving time' to decide as to whether the impugned notices under section 148 of the Act issued under the new regime as per the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Ashish Agarwal (supra) would be valid notice or not in view of the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra): SCA NO AY Date of notice under section 148 under TOLA No of days of surviving time available till 30.06.2021 Date of providing information under section 148A(b) 6387/2023 2013-2014 17.06.2021 13 26.05.2022 5688/2023 2014-2015 09.06.2021 21 23.05.2022 22260/2022 2016-2017 30.06.2021 1 23.05.2022 996/2023 2017-2018 30.06.2021 1 24.05.2022 SCA NO Due date of filing reply Date of reply:- Date of order under section 148A(d) and notice under section 148:- Last date for issuance of notice under section 148 as per surviving time:- 6387/2023 09.06.2022 04.06.2022 29.07.2022 22.06.2022 5688/2023 06.06.2022 - 27.07.2022 27.06.2022 22260/2022 07.06.2022 06.07.2022 30.07.2022 14.06.2022 996/2023 11.06.2022 10.06.2022 19.07.2022 ....