2026 (6) TMI 610

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.... 5. 2 The Assessment Order dated 06.01.2026, passed by respondent No.2-Assessing Officer, National Faceless Assessment Centre, for the assessment year 2015-16 has been assailed by the petitioner-Society in this Writ Petition, on the grounds of denial of opportunity to submit reply to the show cause notice dated 09.12.2025, issued by respondent No.5- Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), Hyderabad, under Section 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and also disallowance of exemption under Section 10(23C)(vi) of the Act. 3. It is the case of the petitioner that earlier the assessment order dated 29.12.2017, passed under Section 143(3) of the Act, for the same assessment year 2015-16, was subjected to appeal before respondent No.3, who ....

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....passing the assessment order after remand by the ITAT is 31.03.2026. The petitioner has assailed the impugned assessment order dated 06.01.2026, stating that if reply to the show cause notice is taken into consideration by the assessing officer, its grievance would be met. 6. The matter was adjourned on 09.02.2026 to enable the learned Standing Counsel for Income Tax Department to obtain instructions. 7. Today, learned Standing Counsel for Income Tax Department has placed before this Court, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Assessment Unit, Verification Unit, Technical Unit and Review Unit under the faceless assessment provisions of Section 144B of the Act, dated 03.08.2022. He has drawn the attention of this Court to the SOP....

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....tails of opportunities given to the assessee after intimation for completion of assessment in accordance with Section 144B of the Act. He submits that the petitioner kept on seeking adjournments in pursuance of the notices dated 23.05.2025 and 29.10.2025 issued under Section 142(1) of the Act, which were granted on 16.06.2025 and 04.11.2025. The petitioner did not furnish any reply or details/particulars called for. Therefore, the notice dated 09.12.2025 was issued under Section 143 of the Act. He submits that Clause N.1.3.2 of the SOP empowers the Assessing Officer to give 7 days' response time. Since the petitioner had taken number of adjournments in pursuance of the notice under Section 142(1) of the Act without furnishing relevant detai....

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.... It is submitted that therefore, the impugned assessment order suffers from violation of principles of natural justice and lack of sufficient opportunity to the assessee to furnish reply against the proposed assessment. The impugned assessment order may, therefore, be set aside and the matter may be remanded to the assessing authority to consider his reply and pass a fresh order in accordance with law within the limitation period i.e., 31.03.2026. 10. Upon consideration of rival submissions of learned counsel for the parties and taking into account the material facts in the foregoing part of the order, we are of the opinion that even as per the SOP dated 03.08.2022, the Assessing Officer had no justification to curtail the response time ....