TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (12) TMI 1870
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....(A.Y. 2015-16) 3. The brief facts of the case are that the assessee had filed its return of income for the A.Y. 2015-16 on 30.09.2015 declaring income of Rs.12,36,700/-. The case was taken up for reassessment proceeding by issue of notice under Section 148 of the Act on 07.06.2021. Thereafter, as per the direction of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India and Ors. vs Ashish Agarwal (Civil Appeal No. 3005/2022) dated 04.05.2022, the Assessing Officer had issued notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act on 25.05.2022. Subsequently, the order under Section 148A(d) of the Act was passed on 30.08.2022 and a fresh notice under Section 148 of the Act was issued on 30.08.2022. The assessment was completed under Section 147 read with Section 144B of the Act on 30.05.2023 at total income of Rs. 364,12,29,313/-. 4. Aggrieved with the order of the Assessing Officer, the assessee had filed an appeal before the first appellate authority which was decided by the Ld. CIT(A) vide the impugned order and the appeal of the assessee was dismissed. 5. The assessee is now in second appeal before us. The following grounds have been taken in this appeal: - "1. The Ld. CIT(A....
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.... order by merely relying on the information received from DDIT(Inv) & order u/s.148A(d). The Id. AO has reproduced the information received from DDIT(Inv.) and order or AO u/s.148A(d) in his order and no contention against assessee submission and evidence was mentioned in his assessment order. The Ld. AO has passed assessment order based on assumption and without establishment and justification of addition. The Ld. A.O has added cash credit sales of assessee to the above mentioned three parties without considering corresponding purchase and Further, the Ld. CIT(A) Has not considered appellant submission of facts, law and evidence in appellate proceeding and merely on conjuncture and surmises accepted AO contention for addition in assessment And on the basis of fact and law of case, the addition confirmed by Ld. CIT(A) of Rs. 363,99,62,643/- in assessment order is bad in law and facts and required to be deleted. 4. The appellant reserves the right to delete, add, alter, and/or modify the grounds of appeal either before or during the course of hearing of the appeal." 6. The assessee has also raised an additional ground which is as under: - In view of decision of ....
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....hree judge bench decision of this Court in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal 2024 SCC On Line SC 2693/[2024] 167 taxmann.com 70/301 Taxman 238/469 ITR 46 (SC), more particularly, paragraph 19(f) which reads thus: - "19. (f) The Revenue concedes that for the assessment year 2015- 2016, all notices issued on or after April 1. 2021 will have to be dropped as they will not fall for completion during the period prescribed under the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020." 5. As the revenue made a concession in the aforesaid decision that is for the assessment year 2015-2016, all notices issued on or after 1 April, 2021 will have to be dropped as they would not fall for completion during period prescribed under the taxation and other laws (Relaxation and Amendment of certain Provisions 2020). Nothing further is required to be adjudicated in this matter as the notices so far as the present litigation is concerned is dated 25.6.2021. [Emphasis supplied.] 10. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has thus held that all notices issued on or after 1 April, 2021 for the A.Y. 2015-16 will have to be dropped as they would not fall f....
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.... Assessing Officer issued a reopening notice on 23-04-2021 for assessment year 2016-17 and pursuant to decision of Supreme Court in case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [2022] 138 taxmann.com 64/286 Taxman 183/444 ITR 1. issued a fresh notice on 27-08-2022 and in view of decision of Supreme Court in case of Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal [2024] 167 taxmann.com 70/301 Taxman 238/469 ITR 46, reopening notice issued on 27-08-2022 was time barred and, thus, original notice issued on 23-04-2021 was invalid. The additional legal ground taken by the assessee in ITA No. 1230/Ahd/2025 for the A.Y. 2017-18 is identical to the ground as taken in the A. Y. 2016-17. 15. The Ld. AR submitted that the initial notice u/s 148 of the Act for both the years was issued on 23.04.2021, which was within the extended time limit as per TOLA. As per the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India vs. Ashish Agarwal (2023) (1 SSC 617), all the notices issued u/s 148 of the Act during the period from 01.04.2021 to 30.06.2021, were deemed to be notice issued u/s 148A(b) of the Act, as amended by the Finance Act 2021. Further, directions were issued to supply the materia....
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.... date will start from the actual date of response filed by the assessee and not from the due date of response by the assessee. In this regard he had drawn our attention to observation made in para-112 of the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Rajeev Bansal (supra). 18. We have carefully considered the rival submissions. It will be relevant to tabulate the chronology of the events in the present case, which is as under: - Assessment Year 2016-17 2017-18 Notice under Section 148 of the Act [Pre- judgement dated 04.05.2022 rendered in the case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal] 23.04.2021 23.04.2021 Surviving period/days before expiry of limitation on 30.06.2021 [Number of days computed by following formula: 30.06.2021 less date on which initial notice under Section 148 was issued] 68 days 68 days Notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act 25.05.2022 27.05.2022 Date on which reply was required to be filed as per notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Act 15.06.2022 17.06.2022 Date on which reply was filed by the assessee in response to the notice under Section 1....
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.... to respond to the show cause notices. [Emphasis supplied.] 21. The interplay of the directions in the case of Ashish Agrawal with TOLA was examined by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Rajeev Bansal (supra). The Hon'ble Court had held that only the time surviving under the Income Tax Act read with TOLA will be available to the Revenue to complete the remaining proceedings in furtherance of such deemed notice, including issuance of notice u/s 148 of the new regime. The surviving or balance time limit was required to be calculated by computing the number of days between the date of issuance of deemed notice and 30th June, 2021. The reasoning and the relevant part of the judgement of the Court is as under: 110. The effect of the creation of the legal fiction in Ashish Agarwal (supra) was that it stopped the clock of limitation with effect from the date of issuance of Section 148 notices under the old regime [which is also the date of issuance of the deemed notices]. As discussed in the preceding segments of this judgment, the period from the date of the issuance of the deemed notices till the supply of relevant information and material by the asses....
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....assessment years, an assessing officer has to: (i) issue the notices within the period prescribed under Section 149(1) of the new regime read with TOLA; and (ii) obtain the previous approval of the authority specified under Section 151. A notice issued without complying with the preconditions is invalid as it affects the jurisdiction of the assessing officer. Therefore, the reassessment notices issued under Section 148 of the new regime, which are in pursuance of the deemed notices, ought to be issued within the time limit surviving under the Income Tax Act read with TOLA. A reassessment notice issued beyond the surviving time limit will be time-barred. [Emphasis supplied.] 22. The Hon'ble Supreme Court had thus categorically held that the assessing officers were required to issue the reassessment notice under Section 148 of the new regime within the time limit surviving under the Income Tax Act read with TOLA and that all notices issued beyond the surviving period were time barred and liable to be set aside. This time-line was also demonstrated in para 112 of the order with an illustration. The Apex Court had held (in para-110) that the period from the date of the ....
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....e discretionary jurisdiction exercised by this Court under Article 142 is of the widest amplitude. The Constitution has left it to the judicial discretion of this Court to decide the scope and limits of its jurisdiction to render substantial justice in matters coming before it. The expression "any cause or matter" mentioned under Article 142 includes every kind of proceeding pending before this Court. Article 142 allows this Court to give precedence to equity over law, provided the exercise of the discretion is consistent with constitutional provisions and after due consideration of substantive provisions in statutory law. The Hon'ble Court further held that the exercise of the jurisdiction under Article 142 is meant to supplement the existing legal framework to do complete justice between the parties. Further that in a given circumstance, the Apex Court can supplement a legal framework to craft a just outcome when strict adherence to a source of law and exclusive rule-based theories creates inequitable results. Therefore, the law as declared by the Supreme Court in the case of Rajeev Bansal (supra) overrides the provisions of section 148A(d) of the Act and the Revenue had s....
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....s per the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Ashish Agarwal (supra) would be valid notice or not in view of the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra): SCA NO AY Date of notice under section 148 under TOLA No of days of surviving time available till 30.06.2021 Date of providing information under section 148A(b) 6387/2023 2013-2014 17.06.2021 13 26.05.2022 5688/2023 2014-2015 09.06.2021 21 23.05.2022 22260/2022 2016-2017 30.06.2021 1 23.05.2022 996/2023 2017-2018 30.06.2021 1 24.05.2022 SCA NO Due date of filing reply Date of reply :- Date of order under section 148A(d) and notice under section 148 :- Last date for issuance of notice under section 148 as per surviving time :- 6387/2023 09.06.2022 04.06.2022 29.07.2022 22.06.2022 5688/2023 06.06.2022 - 27.07.2022 27.06.2022 22260/2022 07.06.2022 06.07.2022 30.07.2022 14.06.2022 &nb....