2016 (2) TMI 277

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..... 2012 for the Assessment Years ('AYs') 2000-01 to 2002-03. 2. The question sought to be urged by the Revenue is whether the ITAT erred in accepting the plea of the Assessee that the assessments for the aforementioned AYs were barred by limitation in terms of the proviso to Section 153C of the Act. 3. A search and seizure action under Section 132 of the Act was carried out on the RL Group on 13th December 2005. In the course of search, several documents were seized. It was claimed that some of the documents belonged to the Respondent herein, i.e., M/s R.L. Allied Industries (the Assessee). The seized material pertaining to the Assessee was received by the Assessing Officer ('AO') of the searched entity from the Assistant Commissioner of Inc .....

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..... ents etc to the AO of the 'other person'. In effect, learned counsel for the Revenue doubted the correctness of the decisions in SSP Aviation (supra) and RRJ Securities(supra) and sought a reference of the case to a larger Bench. 6. Having considered the relevant provisions and the decisions referred to, this Court is not persuaded to accept the above plea. The decision of this Court in RRJ Securities (supra), apart from discussing the provisions in question also adverted to the earlier decision in SSP Aviation(supra) and concluded 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 153A of the Act has to be construed a .....

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..... who is not searched but his assets are seized from the searched person, the period for which the assessments could be reopened would be much beyond the period of six years. This is so because the date of handing 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 Assesse .....

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