TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (8) TMI 827
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.... to quash and set aside the notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 dated 31.03.2025 for the Assessment Year 2015-16 to reassess the income and further to direct the respondent not to proceed further or pass final order under Section 143(3) read with Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). 4. The brief facts giving rise to the filing of the present writ petition are that the petitioner had filed its return of income for the Assessment Year 2015-16 on 31.03.2016 declaring a total income of Rs. 2,97,030/-. It is the case of the petitioner that on 09.05.2024, search and seizure operation under Section 132 of the Act was conducted. During the course of search, certain loose papers, notarized documents and pocket diaries were found and seized. In the said search proceedings a notarized agreement dated 04.09.2013 relating to immovable property bearing Revenue Survey No. 129 T.P. No. 51 (Dabholi), Final Plot No. 160/A, Moje Dabholi, Surat along with certain cash noting were found. It is the case of the petitioner that relying on the said documents, the respondents alleged that the petitioner is one of the co-seller and is hold....
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....ng the search conducted. Therefore, if the provisions prior to the amendments introduced by the Finance Act, 2021 are applied, Section 153A of the Act becomes relevant. Therefore, according to Section 153A(1) of the Act, any search conducted after 1st April, 2021 is no longer governed by that provision due to the legislative changes. Moreover, the first proviso to Section 149(1) of the Act specifies that for Assessment Years prior to 1st April, 2021, any reopening of assessment must adhere to the time limits and conditions under Section 153A of the Act as it existed before the enactment of Finance Act, 2021. Thus, reassessment initiated in connection with the search conducted on or after 1st April, 2021, the reassessment must not only comply with the prescribed time frames in Section 149 of the Act, but also fulfills the applicable conditions of Section 153A and 153C of the Act. Hence, it is submitted that the manner in which the period of six or ten years is required to be reckoned in respect of reopening of the assessment for a period prior to six years and/or before the expiry of ten years from the relevant assessment years as contemplated under Section 153A of the Act, the peri....
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....encement of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024." Thus, since the date of search falls within the period from the 1st day of April, 2021 to the 1st day of September, 2024, the provisions of Sections 147 to 151, as they stood prior to the Finance Act (No. 2), 2024, shall apply. 9. Section 149 (Old regime) of the Act reads thus: "Time limit for notice. 149. (1) No notice under section 148 shall be issued for the relevant assessment year, - (a) if three years have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year, unless the case falls under clause (b); (b) if three years, but not more than ten years, have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year unless the Assessing Officer has in his possession books of account or other documents or evidence which reveal that the income chargeable to tax, represented in the form of- (i) an asset, (ii) expenditure in respect of a transaction or in relation to an event or occasion, or (iii) an entry or entries in the books of account, which has escaped assessment amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more:] Provided that no n....
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....o Section 153A of the Act, on which the learned advocates have premised their submissions. Section 153A(1)(b) and Explanation (1) to Section 153A of the Act read as under: "SECTION 153A Assessment in case of search or requisition. 153A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 139, section 147, section 148, section 149, section 151 and section 153, in the case of a person where a search is initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A after the 31st day of May, 2003, the Assessing Officer shall- XXX XXX XXX (b) assess or reassess the total income of six assessment years immediately preceding the assessment year relevant to the previous year in which such search is conducted or requisition is made and for the relevant assessment year or years: Provided that the Assessing Officer shall assess or reassess the total income in respect of each assessment year falling within such six assessment years and for the relevant assessment year or years): Provided further that assessment or reassessment, if any, relating to any assessment year falling withi....
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....igh Court has already considered the implications of Explanation (1) to Section 153A of the Act to the limitation and the expression "relevant assessment year" used therein in Explanation (1) to Section 153A of the Act. The Delhi High Court, in the case of Ojjus Medicare (supra), after considering an array of judgments of other High Courts as well as of the Supreme Court and upon a threadbare consideration and analysis of the statutory provisions of Sections 153A, 148 and 149 of the Act, has held thus: "88 Section 153A replicates the basis on which the six AYs' are to be identified and computed with the solitary distinction being that in the case of the searched person, the six AYs' are liable to be computed from the AY pertaining to the FY in which the search was conducted. The starting point for the purpose of identifying the six AYs' in the case of section 153A would thus turn upon the year of search as opposed to the handover of material which is spoken of in the First Proviso to section 153C. If one were to therefore assume that a search took place on a person between 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, the pertinent AY would become AY 2022-23 and the corresponding six AY....
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....since search was made in this case on 10.04.2018, the assessment year is 2019-20. The end of the assessment year 2019-20 is 31.03.2020. The computation of ten years has to run backwards from the said date i.e. 31.03.2020. The first year will of course be the search assessment year itself. In that event, the ten assessment years will be as follows: 1st Year 2019-20 2nd Year 2018-19 3rd Year 2017-18 4th Year 2016-17 5th Year 2015-16 6th Year 2014-15 7th Year 2013-14 8th Year 2012-13 9th Year 2011-2012 10th Year 2010-2011 The case on hand pertains to AY 2009-10. It is obviously beyond the ten year outer ceiling limit prescribed by the statute. The terminal point is the tenth year calculated from the end of the assessment year relevant to the previous year in which search is conducted. The long arm of the law can go up to this terminal point and not one day beyond. When the statute is clear and admits of no ambiguity, it has to be strictly construed and there is no scope for looking to the explanatory notes appended to statute or circular issued by the department. 10. In the case on hand, the statute has pres....