TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 1374
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....ght to our notice the relevant facts, he submitted that the notice dated 31.03.2021 issued under Section 148 of the Act by the AO is illegal, bad in law, and without jurisdiction as the same has been issued without taking the valid approval/satisfaction from the prescribed authority mentioned under Section 151 of the Act. He submitted that under Section 151 of the Act, it has been provided that no notice under Section 148 of the Act shall be issued unless the AO has obtained prior approval of the specified authority to issue such notice. The specified authority for the purpose of this section has been defined in Section 151 of the Act. Section 151 of the Act which deals with the sanction of the specified authority for the issue of notice states specified authority for the purposes of section 148 and section 148A will be Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General or where there is no Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General, Chief Commissioner or Director General, if more than three years have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year. For the sake of brevity, Section 151 is reproduced as below: a. Section 151 of the Act reads as....
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....(i) Communist Party of India (Marxist) v. Income Tax Department [2025] 174 taxmann.com 925 (Delhi) wherein it is held that the question as to which is the specified authority whose approval is mandatory, would depend on whether the notice under Section 148 of the Act was issued within a period of three years from the end of the relevant assessment year or thereafter. (ii) ITAT, Delhi in the case of Genpact India Holdings v. ACIT, Circle-1(3)(1), ITA No. 1527/Del/2024 (iii) Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court judgements in the case of Bhagwan Sahai Sharma v. DCIT, [2025] 174 taxmann.com 916 (Delhi) (iv) DCIT v. Rudra Buildwell Homes (P.) Ltd., [2025] 178 taxmann.com 55 (Delhi - Trib.) 6. Further, ld. AR submitted that an RTI application was submitted by the assessee asking for whether approval u/s 151 dated 31.03.2021 in the case of the assessee for AY 2014-15 was digitally signed/physically signed and if you, kindly supply the duly signed copy of the approval dated 31.03.2021. In response to the said RTI application, it was reported that as per records available with this office and data fetched through ITBA system in the case of the assessee for AY 2014....
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.... 74. The above table indicates that the specified authority is directly co-related to the time when the notice is issued. This plays out as follows under the old regime: (i) If income escaping assessment was less than Rupees one lakh: (a) a reassessment notice could be issued under Section 148 within four years after obtaining the approval of the Joint Commissioner; and (b) no notice could be issued after the expiry of four years; and (ii) If income escaping was more than Rupees one lakh: (a) a reassessment notice could be issued within four years after obtaining the approval of the Joint Commissioner; and (b) after four years but within six years after obtaining the approval of the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner. 75. After 1 April 2021, the new regime has specified different authorities for granting sanctions under Section 151. The new regime is beneficial to the assessee because it specifies a higher level of authority for the grant of sanctions in comparison to the old regime. Therefore, in terms of Ashish Agarwal (supra), after 1 April 2021, the pri....
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.... Section 151(i) has an extended time till 30 June 2021 to grant approval. In the case of Section 151 of the old regime, the test is: if the time limit of four years from the end of an assessment year falls between 20 March 2020 and 31 March 2021, then the specified authority under Section 151(2) has time till 31 March 2021 to grant approval. The time limit for Section 151 of the old regime expires on 31 March 2021 because the new regime comes into effect on 1 April 2021." 10. In this regard, we observe that the notice dated 31.03.2021 issued by the AO under section 148 of the Act is illegal, bad in law, and without jurisdiction as the same has been issued without taking the valid approval/satisfaction from the prescribed authority mentioned under Section 151 of the Act. 11. Further we observe that since more than 3 years have elapsed while issuing notice for the year under consideration, i.e., AY 2014-15, hence, the alleged approval has to be obtained from PCCIT or PDGIT, and if there is no PCCIT or PDGIT, then from CCIT or DGIT under the provisions of Section 151(b) of the Act. Further, as is evident from the aforesaid provisions of Section 151 of the Act, the procedures pre....