TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 874
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....case and in law, the final assessment order dated January 31, 2025 passed by the Ld. AO under section 147 read with section 144 of the Act, pursuant to the directions issued by the DRP, is without jurisdiction, bad in law and thus, liable to be quashed. 3. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the final assessment order passed by the Ld. AD is barred by limitation as it has been passed beyond the time frame prescribed under section 153(1) of the Act. 4. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the draft assessment order dated March 27, 2024 passed by the AO in the name of a non-existent entity and without mentioning any Permanent Account Number ("PAN") is Invalid and consequently, the DRP directions and final assessment order passed basis such an invalid draft assessment order are also invalid and thus, deserve to be quashed. 5. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the AD has erred in not serving notices under section 148A(b) and 148 and order under section 148A(d) of the Act, which is sine qua non for initiation of assessment proceedings under section 147 r.w.s 148A of the Act. 6. T....
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....ase and in law, the Ld. AO has erred in initiating penalty proceedings under Section 270A of the Act 16. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. AO has erred in initiating penalty proceedings under Section 271F of the Act 17. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. AO has erred in initiating penalty proceedings under Section 271(1)(b) of the Act. The above grounds of appeal are all independent and without prejudice to each other. The Appellant craves leave to supplement, to cancel, to amend, to add and/or otherwise to alter/ modify any or all the ground(s) of appeal stated herein above on or before its hearing before your honor." 2. In this case, the assessment was reopened u/s 148 of the Act, in view of the facts noted by the AO, that the assessee had not filed its return of income for A.Y. 2018-19 and during the course of survey u/s 133A(2A) of the Act, at the premises of M/s Genpact India Pvt. Ltd., it was found that the assessee had received a sum of Rs. 47,82,983 as foreign remittance from M/s Genpact India Pvt. Ltd. According to the AO, the notice u/s148 of the Act, was issued to the assessee....
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....ice under section 148 dated 12 April 2022 is time-barred as per provisions of section 149 of the Act 5. Without prejudice to above contentions, the software licence fees, communication charges, bandwidth charges, webhosting charges as stated in the notice cannot be construed as 'Royalty'. 4. However, the AO did not accept the legal objections and passed a draft assessment order u/s 147/144 of the Act, on 27.03.2024 proposing an addition of Rs. 47,82,983/- on account of income accruing to the assessee from M/s Genpact India Ltd. 5. Aggrieved with the above proposed addition, the assessee filed its objections before the Ld. DRP. The Ld. DRP regarding the legal objections raised by the assessee made its observation regarding the issue of the impugned notice on a non-existent company and directed the AO to pass a speaking order regarding the said legal objection raised by the assessee. The said observations / directions of the DRP are as under: "(a) At the outset, the assessee has challenged the validity of the proceedings right from the non issuance of notice to the matter being time barred and that the notice was issued without PAN and most importantly....
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....llowed after verification Detailed computation of tax and interest chargeable under various provisions of the Act is made in ITNS-150 and enclosed with this assessment order. Demand notice u/s 156 is issued with the order. A copy of the directions u/s 144C(5) of the DRP dated 10.12.2024 is placed as annexure to this order and is to be read as a part of this final assessment order." 7. During the appeal before us, the assessee reiterated its submissions made before the DRP and the legal submissions regarding the violation of provision of section 149 of the Act are reproduced as under; "Ground 3 That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, notice under section 143 of the Act issued on 12 April 2022 is time-barred and accordingly proceeding carried out under section 147 is void ab initio and against the principal of natural justice. * At the outset, the Company has not received any notice under section 148 of the Act during the course of assessment proceeding. * On perusal of the show cause notice dated 27 January 2024, the Company got to know that a notice under section 148 of the Act has been issued on 12 April 2022. Relev....
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....t. 2021 Provided further that the provisions of this sub-section shall not apply in a case, where a notice under section 153A, or section 153C read with section 153A, is required to be issued in relation to a search initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets requisitioned under section 132A, on or before the 31st day of March, 2021" * As per section 149(1)(a) of the Act, no notice under section 148 of the Act shall be issued after the expiry of three years from the end of the relevant assessment year. * Further, section 149(1)(b) of that Act states that notice can be issued upto ten years from the end of the relevant assessment year unless the Assessing Officer has in his possession books of account or other documents or evidence which reveal that the income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more. * As per the draft assessment order, an amount of INR 47,82,983 has been alleged to be income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment. Thus, the time limit for issue of the notice under section 148 of the Act would be covered by the provisio....
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....enged the legality of the assessment order passed in this case on jurisdictional grounds. The assessee contested that no proceedings u/s 148 A(b) of the Act was initiated in its case and further the notice u/s 148 dated 12.02.2022 was never served upon the assessee. Further, the assessee also submitted that the impugned notice u/s 148 of the Act dated 12.04.2022 was served upon a non-existent company i.e. in name of 'Corporate Executive Board', which was non -existent on the date of the said impugned notice u/s 148 of the Act, dated 12.04.2022. The fact regarding service of the notice u/s 148 of the Act dated 12.04.2022 on a non-existent entity was also noted by the DRP and the DRP had directed the AO to pass a speaking order regarding the above legal objection raised by the assessee, which was not done by the AO while passing the final assessment order u/s 144C r.w.s. 144(13) of the Act, dated 31.01.2025. 8.1 Further, the contentions of the assessee that no proceedings u/s 148A(b) of the act was carried out in the case of the assessee and the impugned notice u/s 148 of the Act dated 12.04.2022 was not served upon it was not contested by the AO while passing the final as....