TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (8) TMI 1850
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.... of assessment passed u/s 153C r.w.s. 144 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as „the Act‟) dated 31.03.2023 by the Assessing Officer, DCIT, Central Circle-8, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as „ld. AO‟). Identical issues are involved in these appeals and hence they are taken up together and disposed of by this common order for the sake of convenience. 2. The Assessee has raised a preliminary ground challenging the validity of the search assessment framed in his hands under section 153C of the Act in view of the fact that approval under section 153D of the Act has been obtained from the competent authority in a mechanical manner and a single approval has been obtained for various assessment yea....
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....dditional Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range-2, New Delhi granted approval under Section 153D of the Act for the draft assessment orders to the Learned AO vide letter dated 30-03-2023. While granting this approval, strangely the Learned Additional Commissioner of Income Tax stated in para 2 that the case records of the assessee were also perused by him along with the draft assessment orders. When the draft assessment orders alone were submitted by the Learned AO before the Learned Additional CIT, how the Learned Additional CIT could have had access to the case records of the assessee was not properly explained by the revenue before us. For the sake of convenience, the said letter dated 30-03 2023 granting a consolidated approval for ....
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....erused by you & brought to the notice of undersigned. " 7. However, the aforesaid seems to be some sort of mechanical exercise only because in the corresponding letter from the ld. AO dated 27.09.2021 (supra) only draft orders were submitted for examination. There is no reference that appraisal report or seized documents were also forwarded. In fact, it is pertinent to observe that vide letter dated 27.09.2021 (supra), the AO had made a request that "online approval u/s 153D may kindly be accorded." This shows that certainly, the assessment records were not forwarded, what to talk of appraisal report and relevant seized documents. 8. Furthermore, as we examine the approval dated 27.09.2021, we find that in para 3, the ld. ....
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....rections only indicate that in a perfunctory manner without application of mind post completion of assessment, on the draft orders the approval has been granted. 10. It is now settled proposition of law that the approval so granted without taking into consideration the assessment record, incriminating evidences and the approval not exhibiting the reasons for granting the approval independently on the draft assessment order cannot be sustained. Reliance in this regard is placed on the decision of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of PCIT vs. Anuj Bansal, 466 ITR 254 (Del). Further we find that Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in the case of PCIT vs. Shiv Kumar Nayyar in ITA No. 285/2024 (Del), dated 15.05.2024, has decid....
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...." 7. It could be seen that the Learned Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Range -2, New Delhi had accorded approval under Section 153D of the Act for assessment years 2013-14 to 2019-20, which constitute a consolidated approval for all the assessment years, which (0:48) in our considered opinion, is not in consonance with the requirement of provisions of Section 153D of the Act. The plain reading of provisions of Section 153D of the Act makes it very clear and the section mandates approval under Section 153D of the Act to be given for each assessment year for each assessee. Here the approval has been given for various assessment years for one assessee, which is not in accordance with provisions of Section 153D of the Act. Hen....
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....Not filed Rs. Nil/- 2 2014-15 Rs. 2,19,880/- Not filed Rs. 2,19,880/- 3 2015-16 Rs. 4,00,000/- Not filed Rs. 4,00,000/- 4 2016-17 Rs. 39,90,080/- Not filed Rs. 39,90,080/- 5 2017-18 Rs. 53,70,940/- Not filed Rs. 53,70,940/- 2018-19 Rs. 9,67,420/- Not filed Rs. 30,48,320/- 2019-20 Rs. 2,97,990/- Not filed Rs. 17,40,490/- The draft orders are being submitted after verifying the annexure, statements recorded and inquiries conducted. The issues mentioned in the Appraisal Report and arising out of seized material have been examined. The inquiries wherever necessary have been carried out. The return of income has also been verified. /v Jury Rajesh P1. put up 3935 2 9 MAR 2023 Yours faithfully. (Sidharth Kumar) D....