AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (5) TMI 1471
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....ecorded separately for each assessment year. Further submitted that the issue involved in the present appeal is squarely covered in Assessee's own case for A.Y 2016-17 and 2019-20 in ITA No. 5760 and 5762/Del/2025 wherein the Tribunal has quashed the assessment orders therein on account of consolidated satisfaction note. Thus sought for allowing the present Appeal. 3. Per contra, the Ld. Departmental Representative relying on the orders of the Lower Authorities sought for dismissal of the Appeal. 4. We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. It is an admitted fact that pursuant a consolidated satisfaction note recorded for Assessment Years 2014-15 to 2020-21, the assessment proceedings under Section 153C of the Act has been initiated and an assessment order came to be passed which has been confirmed by the Ld. CIT(A). 5. The Co-ordinate Bench of the Tribunal in Assessee's own case for Assessment Year 2016-17 and 2019-20 vide order dated 26/02/2026, quashed the assessment orders in following manners:- "7. Heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. We have gone through the satisfaction note u/s. 153C of the....
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....." 7. It is pertinent to note that the Special Leave Petition (SLP) preferred by the revenue against this order had been dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court which is reported in 165 taxmann.com 846 (SC) by observing as under:- "ORDER 1. Delay condoned. 2. Heard the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellants. 3. We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru in Writ Appeal No. 831/2022 (T-IT) dated 22-01-2024/ Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax v. Sunil Kumar Sharma [2024] 159 taxmann.com 179 (Karnataka) . 4. The Special Leave Petition is dismissed. 5. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of. 8. The Learned DR before us vehemently relied on the decision of the Hon'ble Jurisdictional High Court in the case of Indian National Congress vs DCIT reported in 463 ITR 431 (Del) dated 22-03-2024 wherein it was held as under:- 24. The provision only requires the AO to be satisfied that the material collated and handed over is likely to have an impact on the total income for the relevant AY or AYs'. While an as....
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.... have to be computed by the Assessing Officers as a fresh exercise. (iii) The Assessing Officer will exercise normal assessment powers in respect of the six years previous to the relevant assessment year in which the search takes place. The Assessing Officer has the power to assess and reassess the "total income" of the aforementioned six years in separate assessment orders for each of the six years. In other words, there will be only one assessment order in respect of each of the six assessment years "in which both the disclosed and the undisclosed income would be brought to tax". (iv) Although section 153A does not say that additions should be strictly made on the basis of evidence found in the course of the search, or other post-search material or information available with the Assessing Officer which can be related to the evidence found, it does not mean that the assessment "can be arbitrary or made without any relevance or nexus with the seized material. Obviously, an assessment has to be made under this section only on the basis of the seized material." (v) In the absence of any incriminating material, the completed assessment can be reiterated and ....
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....nt which may be undergoing or which may have been completed. The words "have a bearing on the determination of the total income of such other person" as appearing in Section 153C would necessarily have to be conferred pre-eminence. Therefore, and unless the AO is satisfied that the material gathered could potentially impact the determination of total income, it would be unjustified in mechanically reopening or assessing all over again all the ten AYs' that could possibly form part of the block of ten years. 53. Sinhgad Technical Education Society also constitutes a binding precedent in respect of the aforesaid proposition as would be evident from the Supreme Court noticing that the material disclosed pertained only to AY 2004-05 or thereafter and that consequently the Section 153C action initiated for AYs' 2000-01 to 2003-04 would not sustain. It was this position in law as enunciated in that decision which came to be reiterated by our Court in Index Securities. 55. Take for instance a case where the material gathered in the search is contemplated to have an adverse impact on the declarations and disclosures made by an assessee pertaining only to AYs' ....
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....ade subject matter of the notice and which would deal with both disclosed and undisclosed income. This too reinforces our view that Section 153C would apply only to such AYs' where the jurisdictional AO is satisfied and has incriminating material for those AYs' and which may be concerned with disclosed and undisclosed income. 60. Before concluding, we also deem it imperative to briefly notice certain aspects which emerge from a reading of the Satisfaction Notes themselves. As is manifest from a reading of the Satisfaction Note drawn by the jurisdictional AO of the assessee in W.P. (C) 1459/2024, after noticing the material which was recovered during the search and related to FYs' 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 [corresponding AYs' thus being AYs' 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13], it has proceeded to observe that the assessments which were liable to abate or be reopened would be AYs' 2010-11 to 2020-21. A similar note appears in W.P. (C)1117/2024. Here again, after referring to the material pertaining to FY 2009-10 [and thus relating to AY 2010-11], the AO proceeded to seek approval for initiating action under Section 153C in respect of AYs' 2010-11 up....
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...., abatement of the six AYs' or the "relevant assessment year" under Section 153C would follow the formation of opinion and satisfaction being reached that the material received is likely to impact the computation of income for a particular AY or AYs' that may form part of the block of ten AYs'. Abatement would be triggered by the formation of that opinion rather than the other way around. This, in light of the discernibly distinguishable statutory regime underlying Sections 153A and 153C as explained above. While in the case of the former, a notice would inevitably be issued the moment a search is undertaken or documents requisitioned, whereas in the case of the latter, the proceedings would be liable to be commenced only upon the AO having formed the opinion that the material gathered is likely to inculpate the assessee. While in the case of a Section 153A assessment, the issue of whether additions are liable to be made based upon the material recovered is an aspect which would merit consideration in the course of the assessment proceedings, under Section 153C, the AO would have to be prima facie satisfied that the documents, data or asset recovered is likely to "have ....
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....t assessment year" as defined in terms of Explanation 1 of Section 153A. The said approach is clearly unsustainable and contrary to the consistent line struck by the precedents noticed above." 10. Hence respectfully applying the construction that is favourable to the assessee by taking shield from the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Vegetable Products reported in 88 ITR 192 (SC), we would like to follow the decision of the Hon'ble Jurisdictional High Court supra in the case of Saksham Commodities Ltd reported in 464 ITR 1 (Del) and the decision of the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court in the case of Sunil Kumar Sharma supra and hold that recording of consolidated satisfaction note for various assessment years by the Learned AO would become fatal to the very assumption of jurisdiction and consequential framing of assessment under section 153C of the Act for the assessment years 2015-16 and 2016-17 in the instant case. Accordingly, the assessments framed under section 153C of the Act for the assessment years 2015-16 and 2016-17 are hereby quashed. 11. Since the entire assessments are quashed, the other grounds raised by the assessee need not be gone ....