TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 1977
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.... - assessee has assailed the notice dated 29.07.2022 issued under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act') as well as the order dated 29.07.2022 passed under section 148A(d) of the Act seeking to reopen the income tax assessment of the petitioner for the Assessment Year (for short 'A.Y.') 2014-15. During the pendency of the writ petition, the Revenue has passed an assessment order dated 17.10.2025 under section 147 read with section 143(3) of the Act along with demand notice for the A.Y. 2014-15. The same are also challenged by way of the present petition. BRIEF FACTS 3. On 10.03.2015, search was initiated under section 132 of the Act at various premises of the petitioner i.e. Venus Group and the assessment vide order dated 29.12.2017 under section 143(3) read with section 153/153A(i)(b) of the Act was framed wherein, various additional aggregating to Rs. 1,32,10,000/- were made by the Assessing Officer. Being aggrieved, the petitioner challenged the assessment order by filing an appeal, both on merits and technical grounds. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) (for short 'CIT (Appeals)') vide order dated 29.03.2019, dismissed the appeals except grant....
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.... there is escapement of income chargeable to tax to the tune of Rs. 1,32,10,000/- and hence, considered it to be a fit case for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act. Thereafter, the respondent issued notice dated 29.07.2022 under section 148 of the Act seeking to reopen the case of the petitioner for the year under consideration. It appears that in the case of Keenara Industries Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Income Tax Officer, [2023] 453 ITR 51 (Gujarat), this Court set aside the notice and the order dated 29.07.2022 which was further subject matter of challenge and considered by the Supreme Court, and by the judgment and order dated 03.10.2024 in the case of Union of India Vs. Rajeev Bansal, [2024] 469 ITR 46 (SC), set aside the judgment of this Court in the case of Keenara Industries Pvt. Ltd.(Supra), pursuant to which, the notices issued under section 148A(d) became alive and hence, the respondent resumed the reassessment proceedings by issuing notice under section 142(1) of the Act dated 19.09.2025. Hence, the petitioner filed present writ petition. As previously mentioned, the respondent authority framed the assessment order dated 17.10.2025 by making the same additions as made ea....
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.... the Tribunal as well as in the pendency of tax appeals, the additions as per the reassessment order under section 147 of the Act is Rs. 1,32,10,000/- (Special Civil Application No. 14467 of 2025) and as per the additions in the original assessment order under section 153A/153C of the Act is also same i.e. Rs. 1,32,10,000/-. It is submitted that out of this 107 appeals, which were decided by the Tribunal, the revenue did not prefer tax appeals in the cases of 26 categories as a result of no tax effect. He has also referred to the decision of this Court in the case of Hitesh Ashok Vaswani (Supra) and has submitted that the writ petitions filed by the Revenue challenging the order of the Tribunal passed under section 254(2) of the Act seeking rectification of the order of the Tribunal and it is submitted that in fact, the Revenue has been consciously following its cause by challenging the assessment orders and the order passed by the CIT (Appeals). It is submitted that the petitioners have not filed tax appeals. Thus, it is urged that the impugned notice as well as the order of assessment are required to be quashed and set aside in view of pendency of tax appeals and conclusion of th....
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....der was framed vide order dated 29.12.2017 under section 143(3) read with section 153A/153C of the Act whereby, various additions aggregating to Rs. 1,32,10,000/- were made by the Assessing Officer. 6.2 It is not in dispute and in fact, established from the impugned notice issued under section 148A(d) of the Act dated 29.07.2022 as well as the impugned assessment order dated 17.10.2025 passed under section 143(3) read with section 147 of the Act that, the additions are identical and similar to that of the original assessment order under section 153A/153C of the Act in all the captioned matters. Thus, there is no difference of a single rupee or paise. So far as additions are concerned, in the first round as well as in the second round of assessments, the amount remains the same. 6.3 The petitioner challenged the assessment order passed under section 143(3) read with section 153A/153C of the Act dated 29.12.2017 by filing appeals before the CIT (Appeals). There were numerous appeals filed by the assessees and by the order dated 29.03.2019, the CIT (Appeals) decided the appeals filed; on merits as well as on technical grounds. This fact is not disputed by Revenue. The CIT (Appea....
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.... [Hitesh Ashok Vaswani (Supra)], this Court by the decision dated 02.11.2023, rejected the writ petitions by recoding in paragraph Nos. 13.4, 14, 15 as under: "13.4 What is therefore evident on considering the decision of the ITAT in the Appellate proceedings where the issues have been examined threadbare on merits considering the case laws, merely because the Appellate Tribunal, which according to the Revenue has been decided by misinterpretation of facts and law, the same cannot be a subject matter of rectification. 14. In some of the cases before us in the each of the 4 Categories set out herein above, the Revenue has also filed Tax Appeals challenging the order of the Tribunal dated 12.11.2020 in various Tax Appeals under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act,1960. We have set out against each Special Civil Application numbers category wise in which Tax Appeals have been filed. 15. In light of the decisions in the case of R.C. Sabharwal (Supra) and in the case of Muni Seva Ashram (Supra), in such petitions where Tax Appeals are filed by the Revenue in the respective categories, the petitions so filed are not entertained while reserving the right of the R....
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....en the assessment simultaneously. The relevant observations of the Coordinate Bench in the case of Krishna Developers & Company (Supra), are as under: "15. In the case on hand, the assessee had raised two contentions before the Commissioner(Appeals). First was with respect to the validity of the assessment framed by the Assessing Officer without service of notice and second was with respect to merits of additions made by him in such order of assessment. The Commissioner (Appeals) confined his comments only to first of his contentions and declared that the assessment was invalid since it was framed without service of notice. In that view of the matter, he refused to comment on the assessee's contention on merits of the additions. Essentially, therefore, the order of Commissioner (Appeals) dealt with only one part of the assessee's appeal and refused to enter into the other part. The order of Commissioner, therefore, was confined to the ground of invalidity of assessment per-se and not on the merits of the additions made. The reopening is based on the belief of the Assessing Officer that the sale proceeds should be taxed as the business income and not as capital gain....
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.... Tribunal are pending before this Court. Thus, the initial assessment order passed under section 153A/153C of the Act as well as the order passed by the CIT (Appeals) are subject matter of challenge by way of tax appeals. The additions made by the Assessing Officer in both the orders are identical and are premised on the same alleged violation of the provisions by the assessee. 11. Thus, in our considered opinion, when the entire issue is being examined in the tax appeals coupled with the fact that the initial order passed by the CIT (Appeals) is on merits as well as on examination of technical grounds, the reopening of the assessment by the Revenue and passing of the assessment order under provision of section 147 of the Act by placing reliance exclusively on the decision in the case of the Krishna Developers & Company (Supra), is misplaced. The ratio of the decision of this Court in the case of Krishna Developers & Company (Supra), cannot be invoked in the facts of the present case more particularly, in wake of the fact that the CIT (Appeals) has decided the appeals filed by the petitioner on merits as well as on technical grounds. It is only at the stage of Tribunal where the....