Digital signature requirement for e-proceedings assessments: manually signed order held invalid and assessment quashed.

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....Where scrutiny assessment is completed through the e-proceedings mechanism, the prescribed procedure requires the Assessing Officer to sign the assessment order digitally. Because the assessment order in this case was admittedly passed through e-proceedings but was only manually signed, it did not conform to the binding procedure and the defect vitiated the assessment. The additional legal ground was therefore admitted, the assessment was quashed, and the remaining grounds were treated as academic.....