2026 (8) TMI 1027

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....se are that the, assessee, M/s. Overseas Exports, filed its return of income for the Assessment Year 2007-08 declaring a total income of Rs. 1,15,48,666/-The return was initially assessed under section 143(3) of the Act after the issuance of notice under section 143(2), wherein the total income was determined at Rs. 1,15,48,670/-. Subsequently, the assessment was reopened under section 147 of the Act. During the reassessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer ("AO"), on the basis of information received from the Investigation Wing, Mumbai, treated the purchases of Rs. 68,49,705/- made from M/s. A2 Jewels and Rs. 1,11,49,001/- made from M/s. Mohit International as accommodation entries. However, the AO simultaneously accepted that the sales ....

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....l for reopening had been signed by the AO on 25.03.2014 and the notice under section 148 had also been issued on the very same date, whereas the approval of the Commissioner was accorded only on 27.03.2014. It was, therefore, contended that the notice issued under section 148 prior to obtaining the statutory approval was without jurisdiction, invalid in law and liable to be quashed. 4. Per contra, the learned Departmental Representative ("Ld. DR") relied upon the findings recorded by the Ld. ADDL/JCIT(A). It was submitted that the issuance of notice before the formal grant of approval was merely a procedural irregularity and that the reassessment proceedings could not be invalidated on such technical grounds, particularly when the assess....

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....nly on 27.03.2014. Therefore, on the date of issuance of notice, the mandatory statutory approval contemplated under section 151 had not been obtained. 7. The contentions of the Revenue that the defect is merely procedural cannot be accepted. The requirement of obtaining prior sanction under section 151 goes to the very root of the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer to initiate reassessment proceedings. Compliance with this statutory requirement is a condition precedent for the valid assumption of jurisdiction under section 147 of the Act. A notice issued in the absence of such prior approval is void ab initio and cannot be validated subsequently by obtaining approval after its issuance. Since the notice under section 148 was issued b....