TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (4) TMI 2211
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....hort) in Appeal No.10641/2014-15 arising out of the appeal before it against the order dated 28.03.2023 passed u/s 153C r.w.s. 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred as 'the Act') by the ACIT, Central Circle- 15, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the Ld. AO). The assessee has filed the Cross Objection. 2. The assessee had filed original return on 25.09.2015 and a search and seizure operation was conducted on 02.01.2020 in Sushen Mohan Gupta group of cases. In the said search, premises of M/s ZF Steering Gear India Ltd. was also covered where some documents including digital data allegedly pertaining to the assessee were found and seized. Thereafter, assessment was completed at an income of Rs. 2,73,12,210/-. The ass....
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....s u/s 153C of the Act were completed for the year under consideration on 28.03.2023. 6.2.2. The judicial position of the judgment of CIT v. RRJ Securities 380 ITR 612 has been examined in detail. The relevant para of the order of Jurisdictional High Court in the case of CIT v, RRJ Securities 380 ITR 612 has held as under; "24. As discussed hereinbefore, in terms of proviso to Section 153C of the Act, a reference to the date of the search under the second proviso to Section 153 A of the Act has to be construed as the date of handing over of assets/documents belonging to the Assessee (being the person other than the one searched) to the A O having jurisdiction to assess the said Assessee. Further proceedings, by virtue of Se....
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....over of assets/documents of a person, other than the searched person, to the AO would be subsequent to the date of the search. This, in our view, would be contrary to the scheme of Section 153C(1) of the Act, which construes the date of receipt of assets and documents by the AO of the Assessee (other than one searched) as the date of the search on the Assessee. The rationale appears to be that whereas in the case of a searched person the AO of the searched person assumes possession of seized assets/documents on search of the Assessee; the seized assets/documents belonging to a person other than a searched person come into possession of the AO of that person only after the AO of the searched person is satisfied that the assets/documents do n....
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.... than April 18, 2007, i.e. the date when the Satisfaction Note was prepared. Since the Assessment Order pursuant thereto can be passed under Section 153A(1) of the Act for a period of six Assessment Years, immediately preceding the Assessment. Year relevant to the Previous Year in which the books of accounts or documents or assets were received by the AO of the assessee, he argued that no notice could have been issued for the Assessment Years prior to 2002-03. Therefore, notice for the Assessment Years 2000-01 and 2001-02 was clearly time barred. In respect of Assessment Years 2002-03 and 2003-04, the submission of Mr. Mistri was that one of the jurisdictional conditions precedent to the issue of a notice under Section 153C is that 'money, ....
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....jority of the writ petitions, learned counsels for respective sides had addressed submissions based on the assumption that it would be the date of issuance of the Satisfaction Note by the Assessment Officer of the nonsearched person and in the case of non-availability of such a note, the date of issuance of the section 153C notices which would be pertinent for the purposes of the First Proviso to section 153C. [Para 86] * Assuming, therefore, that the handover of material gathered in the course of the search and pertaining to the non- searched person occurred between 1-4-2021 to 31-3-2022, the same would essentially constitute financial year 2021- 22 as being the previous year of search for the purposes of the non-searched entity. ....
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....te of satisfaction and handing over of the seized material would be deemed to be the date of search and action may be taken u/s 1.53C of the Act in respect of six assessment years from the preceding year in which satisfaction was recorded,, thereby meaning that the notice u/s 153C can be issued for the AY 2016-17 to AY 2021-22 and not for AY 2015-16, In view of the above, since, the assessing officer has initiated assessment proceedings under section 153C for the six assessment years starting from AY 2016-17 to AY 2021-22, following the current judicial views the AY 2015-16 was outside the purview of the AO to initiate proceedings U/s 153C of the Act. Therefore, the relevant Assessment Year i.e. 2015-16 of the appellant is outside ....