TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (7) TMI 1742
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.... Year 2018-19. "1. That order passed u/s 250(6) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 by the Learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-5, Ludhiana is against law and facts on the file in as much he was not justified to uphold the action of the Learned Assessing Officer in initiating proceedings u/s 153C of the Act in the absence of any incriminating material found during the course of search at the premises of Chora Group. 2. That the Learned CIT(A) gravely erred in not appreciating the correct legal position as explained during the course of appellate proceedings and arbitrarily proceeded to uphold the action of the Learned Assessin Officer. 3. That he gravely erred in upholding the action of the Learned Assessing Officer in treating the amount of Rs. 80,00,000/- declared as business income and disclosed in the return of income filed as income taxable u/s 69 r.w.s. 115 BBE of the Income Tax Act, 1961." 3. In ITA No. 49/Asr/2023, the appellant has raised the following grounds of appeal in respect of Assessment Year 2019-20. "1. That order passed u/s 250(6) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 by the Learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-5, Ludhiana is ....
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....nds of appeal at any time before or at the time of hearing of the appeal." 6. The appellant assessee has raised the additional grounds in CO No. 1/Asr/2023: "That the order passed by the Learned Assessing Officer is non-est and bad in law in as much as the proceedings have not been conducted in the manner prescribed by the departmental instructions from time to time which are mandatory for compliance by the Learned Authorities particularly with respect to mentioning of Document Identification Number (DIN)." It is prayed that as the ground raised is purely legal in nature, the same may kindly be entertained for adjudication. For the proposition, the reliance is placed on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of NTPC v/s CIT reported in 229 ITR page 383. 7. Similarly, the appellant vide letter dated 01/04/2024, has raised the following additional legal ground of appeal as purely legal in ITA No. 49/Asr/2023 and no further new facts is required for adjudication of the legal ground of appeal: "1. That the order passed by the Learned Assessing Officer is non-est and bad in law in as much as the proceedings have not been conducted in the man....
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....85) filed on record. In support, the Ld. AR placed reliance on the following decision: 1. ITAT, Delhi Bench, in case of M/s Finesse International Design Pvt. Ltd. Vs. DCIT, CC-14, New Delhi, in ITA No. 1298/Del/2021 2. ITAT, Pune Bench, in case of M/s BVG India Limited Vs. DCIT, CC-1(2), Pune, in ITA No. 16/PUN/2013 3. ITAT, Chandigarh Bench, in case of M/s SPS Structures Ltd. Vs. DCIT, Central Circle-1, Chandigarh, in ITA No. 130/CHD/2023 4. CIT (International Taxation) v. Brandix Maritius Holdings Ltd. [2023] 149 Taxmann.com 385/456 (Delhi) 5. Pr. CIT v. Tata Medical Centre Trust (Calcutta) [2023] 154 Taxmann.com 600/295 6. Teleperformance Global Services (P) Ltd. v. ACIT [IT Appeal No. 2814 & 2815] (Bombay) 10. The Ld. DR on the other hand, contended that the assessment order cannot be held invalid in absence of DIN, as no prejudice to assessee. He relied on the following decisions: "1. Prakash Lal Khandelwal v. Commissioner of Income Tax [2023] 151 Taxmann.com 72 (Jharkhand) 2. South Coast Spices Export (P) Ltd. v. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax [2023] 156 Taxmann.com 93 (Kerala) 3. Cha....
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....ppellate Tribunal) Rules, 1963 owing to the fact that objections raised in the additional grounds are legal in nature for which relevant facts are stated to be emanating from existing records in the light of judgment rendered in the case of NTPC vs. CIT 229 ITR 33 (SC). 6. At the outset of the proceedings before the Tribunal, the ld. Counsel for the assessee adverted to additional ground with reference to CBDT Circular 19/2019 dated 14.08.209 casting mandatory obligations on the revenue authorities to place Document Identification Number (DIN) on all communication by way of orders (statutory or otherwise), approval, and notice of demand under section 156 of the Act etc. and submitted that in the light of plethora of judgments delivered on the controversy, the impugned assessment order passed and notice of demand issued under s. 156 in violation of CBDT circular are rendered non-est and invalid by operation of law. 7. On facts, the learned Counsel adverted to the requisition letter moved by the AO dated 18.02.2021 to the Addl. Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range-1, New Delhi (F. No. ACIT/CC-04/Approval u/s 153D/2020-21/246) and also consequent approval of the....
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.... penalty, prosecution, rectification, approval etc. to the assessee or any other person, on or after the 1st day of October, 2019 unless a computer generated Document Identification Number (DIN) has been allotted and is duly quoted in the body of such communication. Para 3 of the Circular enumerates for exceptional circumstances. 16. The CBDT circular also provides that any such order, notice, correspondence etc. which does not bear the DIN in the body of communication shall be treated as invalid in the eyes of law and shall be deemed to have never been received. The obligation is stated to be of substantial nature as explained by Jurisdictional High Court and other Hon'ble Court and Tribunals. 17. The issue thus raised in the additional ground is thus no longer res Integra. The Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of CIT vs. Brandix Mauritius Holdings Ltd. (supra) clearly underscored the binding nature of CBDT Circular No. 19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 and stated in unequivocal terms that the assessment order passed without DIN is unsustainable in law owning to failure of the Department to allocate DIN and such failure cannot be regarded as an error which....
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....y comply with the mandate of CBDT Circular in letter and spirit and sheds light on the significance of maintaining procedural integrity and upholding the principles of transparency and accountability in the realm of income tax assessments. The strict compliance of Circular is thus cardinal & integral to the validity of assessment. 20. It is an admitted position that the approval granted under s. 153D by the Addl. CIT to the draft assessment order is without issuance of DIN. In the backdrop of nuanced judicial view, the approval under section 153D which is the fulcrum for passing final assessment order dated 19.02.2021 in question is thus apparently non-est in law in the absence of DIN allocated to such communication at all. The final assessment order so passed under s. 153A in question on the basis of such invalid and non-est approval under section 153D is thus without sanction of law. The assessment order dated 19.02.2021 passed under s. 153A is thus liable to be quashed at threshold. Similarly, notice of demand under s. 156 without DIN and on the basis of non-est assessment order is also to be reckoned as a nullity. 21. Having held the assessment order passed is....
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....at the order dt 31/03/2022 did not contain a DIN number and also does not state as to under what circumstances, the order is issued manually and it does not state whether any approval received from the Chief Commissioner on the DG and therefore, the said order should be treated as invalid and non-est in eyes of law in terms of the specific mandate of the CBDT in terms of Circular No. 19/2019 dt. 14/08/2019 and reference was drawn to the Coordinate Kolkata Bench decision in case of M/s Tata Medical Centre Trust as well as various other authorities stating that the circular issued by the CBDT is binding on the Assessing officer. It was further contended that the uploading of the order on web portal is directly in conflict with Section 282 of the Act read with Rule 127 of the Income Tax Rules and what is relevant is the date of communication which in the instant case is 03/04/2022 will after the cutoff date of 31/03/2022 and it was contended that what is relevant is issue as well as services of any communication within the prescribed limit so prescribed by the statute. It was further contended that the assessment proceedings have become time barred as only on 03/04/2022, the order dt.....
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.... and "may" used in the respective provisions and further both sections 153(1) and 153(2) provide for the consequence that after the expiry of time line, no assessment order shall be passed. However Section 153(3) does not provide for any such consequence. Therefore it was held that the delay if any of just one day in uploading the assessment order or generating the DIN cannot make the assessment unsustainable in law. It was further held by the Hon'ble High Court that making of the order and communication of the order are two different things. Even the 2019 Circular stipulates communication of the order and not making of the order as it says every communication relating to assessment etc shall have a DIN on the body of the order. Accordingly, the writ petition was dismissed and at the same time assessee was granted liberty to avail the alternate remedy to challenge the assessment order on merits of the case. 48. We therefore find that even though the contentions have been raised by the assessee regarding the binding nature of the CBDT Circular and non mentioning of DIN on the body of the assessment order as well as the fact that the order is barred by the limitation in term....
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....series of decisions starting from Brandix Mauritius Holding Ltd. (supra), to Pratap Singh Yadav (supra), to Abhimanyu Chaturvedi (ITA No. 2486 & others dated 3/08/2023) to Sharda Devi Bajaj (ITA no. 3006/Del/2022 dated 15/11/2023), Mumbai Benches in case of Tele performance Global Services Private Limited (supra), Bangalore Benches in case of Dilip Kothari (supra), Hyderabad Benches in case of Sidda Venkata Surya Prakasa Rao, Indore Benches in case of Shri Ishak Kasturbagram(ITA No. 13/Ind/2023 dated 24/08/2023), Nagpur Benches in case of Gupta Domestic Fuels and others (ITA no. 61/Nag/2022 and others dated 31/10/2023) that the communication issued by the Income tax authorities by way of notices and assessment orders which are not in compliance with the aforesaid CBDT Circular no 19/2019 are non-est in eyes of law. As we have seen and discussed above, some of these matters have reached the respective Hon'ble High Courts and the findings of the Tribunal have been upheld in case of Brandix Mauritius Holding Ltd. and Tata Medical Centre Trust. On this account as well, we respectfully follow the collective wisdom as expounded in various decisions rendered by the Coordinate Benches acro....
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....view which is favourable to the assessee should be adopted. In view of the same, we are inclined to follow the views expressed by Hon'ble Delhi High Court, Hon'ble Bombay High Court and Hon'ble Calcutta High Court delivered on the issue of the validity of order in absence of DIN on department communications. 16. Considering the factual matrix of the case and judicial precedents, as the matter have reached the respective Hon'ble High Courts and that the findings of the Tribunal have been upheld in case of Brandix Mauritius Holding Ltd. and Tata Medical Centre Trust. Thus, the issue of non maintaining of DIN on the body of the statutory order is a defect which is not even curable u/s 292B of the Act because in the absence of DIN on the body of the order, the said order is deemed to never been issued. We, therefore, respectfully following the collective wisdom as expounded in various decisions rendered by the Coordinate Benches across the Country, do not see any justifiable basis to deviate from the same. 17. In the backdrop of the aforesaid discussion and in the entirety of facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the considered view that the impugned order passed u/s....
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....रीय मंडल जालंधर Office of the Addl. Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range, Jalandhar 144001. फैकà¥à¤¸/Fax: 0181 - 2926385 दूरà¤à¤¾à¤·/Telephone: 0181-2926385 Email ID- [email protected] 25-27, Aytan's Tower, Civil Lines, Near Dilkhusha Market, Jalandhar F. No. Addl.CIT/CR/jal/2021-22/_ 318 Dated: 17.06.2021 सहायक आयकर आयà¥à¤•à¥à¤¤, केंदà¥à¤°à¥€à¤¯ वृतà¥à¤¤, अमृतसर । विषय :- मेसरà¥à¤¸ शà¥à¤°à¥€ जी बिहारी जी कोलोनिज़र à¤à¤‚ड बिलà¥à¤¡à¤°à¥à¤¸ पà¥à¤°à¤¾à¤‡à¤µà¥‡à¤Ÿ लिमिटेड(M/S Shree Ji Bihari Ji Colonisers and Builders Pvt. Ltd., 40-Dayanand Nagar, Amritsary(PAN-AARCS3115]) निà¤....