TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (4) TMI 1337
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....made, the prayer as made is allowed. Application shall stand disposed of. W.P.(C) 13968/2019 1. The writ petition impugns the initiation of action and the consequential notices dated 05 December 2019 issued under Section 153A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ["Act"] for Assessment Years' ["AYs"] 2008-09 to 2011-12. The primary ground of challenge appears to be that the extended period of ten years and which came to be introduced by virtue of the Finance Act, 2017 and with effect from The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 28/11/2025 at 09:55:28 01 April 2017 would not be available to be invoked in respect of the aforenoted AYs', since the period of limitation to initiate proceedings under Section 153A came to expire prior to the....
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....ly illogical to conceive of a connection between the statutory time frames which are otherwise embodied in the Act and search assessments. In fact the acceptance of this submission would amount to virtually erasing the non obstante clause contained in Sections 153A and 153C. L. The legislative intent of those provisions having retroactive application is clearly evidenced from the statue declaring that they would apply to all searches conducted between 31 May 2003 to 31 March 2021, and the Fourth Proviso in unambiguous terms extending the applicability of those provisions to all searches conducted post 01 April 2017 and Sections 153A and 153C superseding the provisions for reassessment, otherwise appearing in the Act. M. Th....
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....hat AY is concerned in any case stands answered in the judgment rendered in Ojjus Medicare Private Limited and the relevant observations read as under: "B. Both Sections 153A and 153C embody non-obstante clauses and are in express terms ordained to override Sections 139, 147 to 149, 151 and 153 of the Act. By virtue of the 2017 Amending Act, significant amendments came to be introduced in Section 153A. These included, inter alia, the search assessment block being enlarged to ten AYs' consequent to the addition of the stipulation of "relevant assessment year" and which was defined to mean those years which would fall beyond the six year block period but not later than ten AYs'. The block period for search assessment thus cam....
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....ation of the six AYs' hinges upon the phrase "immediately preceding the assessment year relevant to the previous year" of search, the ten year period would have to be reckoned from the 31st day of March of the AY relevant to the year of search. This, since undisputedly, Explanation 1 of Section 153A requires us to reckon it "from the end of the assessment year". This distinction would have to necessarily be acknowledged in light of the statute having consciously adopted the phraseology "immediately preceding" when it be in relation to the six year period and employing the expression "from the end of the assessment year" while speaking of the ten year block." 6. Accordingly, and for reasons assigned in our decision in Ojjus Medicare P....