TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 28
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.... section 194C or 194 of the Act. The AO thus, recorded the reasons for reopening the assessment u/s 147 of the Act and a notice u/s 148 of the Act was issued on 19.04.2021. In response, the Appellant filed the Return of Income declaring same income as was declared in the return filed u/s 139(1) of the Act. Thereafter, AO issued various notices u/s 142(1) of the Act from time to time which were replied by the assessee. The reassessment order was passed u/s 147 r.w.s 144B of the Income Tax Act dt. 21.05.2023 at an income of 91,19,250/- by making disallowance of u/s 40(a)(ia) of the Act of 30% of the total amount paid at Rs. 3,03,97,500/- with deduction tax at source. 3. Against the reassessment order, assessee has preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT (A), NFAC, Delhi but the assessee failed to get any relief and the appeal filed was dismissed. 4. Being aggrieved by the order of ld. CIT(A), the assessee preferred present appeal before the Tribunal by taking various grounds of appeal as per the appeal memo. 5. Before us, Ground of appeal No.1 was not pressed thus, the same is treated as dismissed. 6. In Grounds of appeal Nos. 2 to 4, assessee has challenged the validity o....
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....me and new regime i.e. post amendment vide para 73 to 80 in "Part-E" of the order which is reproduced as under: iii. Sanction of the specified authority 73. Section 151 imposes a check upon the power of the Revenue to reopen assessments. The provision imposes a responsibility on the Revenue to ensure that it obtains the sanction of the specified authority before issuing a notice under Section 148. The purpose behind this procedural check is to save the assesses from harassment resulting from the mechanical reopening of assessments.128 A table representing the prescription under the old and new regime is set out below: Regime Time Limits Specified Authority Section 151(2) of old regime Before expiry of four years from the end of relevant assessment year Joint Commissioner Section 151(1) of old regime After expiry of four years from the end of relevant assessment year Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner Section 151(i) of new regime Three years or less than three years from the end of the relevant assessment year Principal Commissioner or Principal Director or Commissioner or....
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....thority is a precondition for the assessing officer to assume jurisdiction under Section 148 to issue a reassessment notice. Section 151 of the new regime does not prescribe a time limit within which a specified authority has to grant sanction. Rather, it links up the time limits with the jurisdiction of the authority to grant sanction. Section 151(ii) of the new regime prescribes a higher level of authority if more than three years have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year. Thus, non-compliance by the assessing officer with the strict time limits prescribed under Section 151 affects their jurisdiction to issue a notice under Section 148. 77. Parliament enacted TOLA to ensure that the interests of the Revenue are not defeated because the assessing officer could not comply with the preconditions due to the difficulties that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Section 3(1) of TOLA relaxes the time limit for compliance with actions that fall for completion from 20 March 2020 to 31 March 2021. TOLA will accordingly extend the time limit for the grant of sanction by the authority specified under Section 151. The test to determine whether TOLA will apply to Secti....
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....cer was required to obtain prior approval from the specified authority before issuing a show cause notice. When this Court deemed the Section 148 notices under the old regime as Section 148A(b) notices under the new regime, it impliedly waived the requirement of obtaining prior approval from the specified authorities under Section 151 for Section 148A(b). It is well established that this Court while exercising its jurisdiction under Article 142, is not bound by the procedural requirements of law. 81. This Court in Ashish Agarwal (supra) directed the assessing officers to "pass orders in terms of Section 148-A(d) in respect of each of the assesses concerned." Further, it directed the assessing officers to issue a notice under Section 148 of the new regime "after following the procedure as required under Section 148-A." Although this Court waived off the requirement of obtaining prior approval under Section 148A(a) and Section 148A(b), it did not waive the requirement for Section 148A(d) and Section 148. Therefore, the assessing officer was required to obtain prior approval of the specified authority according to Section 151 of the new regime before passing an order under Se....