TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (6) TMI 809
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.... and submitted that the appeal can be decided on the preliminary issue raised in the said ground. Ground no. 2 reads as under: 2. On the facts and circumstances of the case and law, the ld. CIT(A) failed to consider that permission obtained under section 151 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was not in accordance with the law, as the same was given by PCIT in mechanical manner without mentioning the date of permission and without jurisdiction and thus the resultant proceedings under section 148 are also bad in law and require to be quashed. 3. As could be seen from the said ground, the assessee has challenged the validity of the notice issued u/s. 148 of the Act and the assessment order passed in pursuance thereof due to lack of prope....
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..... 7. We have considered rival submissions, in the light of the decisions relied upon and perused the materials on record. The short issue arising for consideration is whether the notice issued u/s. 148 of the Act has been validly issued. It is the say of the assessee that the said notice is invalid due to lack of proper sanction. Undisputedly, the notice u/s. 148 of the Act was issued on 07.04.2022, after expiry of three years from the end of the assessment year in dispute, which is A.Y. 2018-19. A careful perusal of the said notice clearly reveals that it was issued after obtaining prior approval of Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai. A reading of section 151 of the Act, which provides for approval/sanction by the competent au....
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.... three years from the end of the relevant assessment year. If this be so, the contention as urged on behalf of the petitioner is that the sanction for initiating the reassessment ought to have been granted by the authorities of the rank referred to in Section 151 (ii) of the Act and not by the authorities of the relatively lower rank under Section 151 (1) of the Act. It is submitted that the issue in this regard is no more res integra in view of the pronouncement of this Court in Siemens Financial Services (P.) Ltd (supra) as relied on behalf of the petitioner. 7. In Siemens Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., this Court held that the sanction as granted by the authority would be rendered invalid in the case it is not issued by the autho....
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....mmissioner of Income-tax-8' and, hence, such an approval would be bad in law. 25. TOLA, enacted on 29th September 2020 and came into force on 31st March 2020. It inter alia, provided for a relaxation of certain provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Where any time limit for completion or compliance of an action such as completion of any proceedings or passing of any order or issuance of any notice fell between the period 20th March 2020 to 31st December 2020, the time limit for completion of such action stood extended to 31st March 2021. Thus, TOLA only seeks to extend period of limitation and does not affect the scope of section 151. 7 26. The Assessing Officer cannot rely on the provisions of TOLA and the notificati....
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....ing authority has to be the PCIT as provided under Section 151 (ii) of the Act. The proviso to Section 151 has been inserted only with effect from 1st April, 2023 and therefore, shall not be applicable to the matter at hand. 4. In this circumstances, as held by this Court in Siemens Financial Services Private Ltd. v. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax & Ors., the sanction is invalid and consequently, the impugned order and impugned notice both dated 7th April, 2022 under section 148A(d) and 148 of the Act are hereby quashed and set aside." 9. In the light of the above discussion, and when there is no dispute that the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) had no jurisdiction to issue the impugned order and the impugned noti....