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TMI Blog2022 (2) TMI 1149X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... upto 30th April 2021. Since in this case, the time-limit for completion of assessment was not expiring as of 31st March 2021, in our view, Notification No.20/2021 is not applicable. Coming to the applicability of Notification No.38/2021 issued on 27th April 2021 - The expiry of time-limit for completion of assessment or for passing the order in petitioner s case under Section 144C(13) of the Act on 30th April 2021 was not due to an earlier extension of time-limit by an earlier notification but was on account of the fact that the directions were issued by the DRP on 20th March 2021. As per Section 144C(13) of the Act, an assessing officer has one month from the date of the end of the month in which the directions are received by him to pass the final order / complete assessment, therefore, in our view, the time-limit of 30th April 2021 not being on account of extension by earlier notification, Notification No.38/2021 is also inapplicable to petitioner s case. Coming to Notification No.74/2021 issued on 25th June 2021, Clause (A) of the notification provides that where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, and the completion of any action referred to in clause (a) of subsec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Petitioner is in the business of retailing petroleum products and supplying lubricants. 2. Petitioner is challenging an assessment order dated 30th September 2021 passed by respondent No.1 under Section 143(3) read with Section 144C(13) and Section 144B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) for Assessment Year 2016-17. It is petitioner s case that the assessment order is ex-facie illegal and contrary to provisions of the Act. 3. Petitioner filed original return of income for Assessment Year 201617 on 30th November 2016. Petitioner s case was selected for scrutiny assessment vide notice dated 19th September 2017 issued by respondent No.2 under Section 143(2) of the Act. Respondent No.2 passed a draft assessment order dated 26th December 2019 under Section 143(3) read with Section 144C(1) [incorrectly mentioned as Section 144C(13)] making certain additions as proposed by Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO), who had passed an order under Section 92CA(4) of the Act on 29th October 2019 proposing an adjustment of ₹ 375,65,17,639/-. Petitioner filed its objections before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) challenging the validity of the draft assessment order on 24th January, 202 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 021, which means, the date by which the Assessing Officer should have completed the assessment should have been 30th April 2021. Since the assessment order has been passed only on 30th September 2021, the entire assessment order is ex-facie illegal. 7. Respondent has filed an affidavit in reply in which respondent has relied upon three notifications issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) being Notification No.20/2021 dated 31st March 2021, Notification No.38/2021 dated 27th April 2021 and Notification No.74/2021 dated 25th June 2021 to submit that the time-limit to complete assessment has been extended upto 30th September 2021 and since the assessment order has been passed on 30th September 2021, there was nothing illegal about it. 8. Therefore, the short points that we have to consider and decide in this petition are - (a) whether the petitioner s case is covered under the Relaxation Act? and (b) whether the time to complete assessment under Section 144C(13) in petitioner s case could be stated to have been extended till 30th September 2021? 9. Before we proceed further, it will be useful to reproduce the relevant provisions. A. Section 144C of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (38 of 2020) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), and in partial modification of the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, (Department of Revenue) No.93/2020 dated the 31st December, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 4805(E), dated the 31st December, 2020, the Central Government hereby specifies that, (A) where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Income-tax Act) and, - (a) the completion of any action referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Act relates to passing of an order under sub-section (13) of section 144C or issuance of notice under section 148 as per time-limit specified in section 149 or sanction under section 151 of the Income-tax Act, - (i) the 31st day of March, 2021 shall be the end date of the period during which the time-limit, specified in, or prescribed or notified under, the Income-tax Act falls for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tain Provisions) Act, 2020 (38 of 2020) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), and in partial modification of the notifications of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, (Department of Revenue) No. 93/2020 dated the 31st December, 2020, No. 10/2021 dated the 27th February, 2021 and No. 20/2021 dated the 31st March, 2021 , published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 4805(E), dated the 31st December, 2020, vide number S.O. 966(E) dated the 27th February, 2021 and vide number S.O. 1432(E) dated the 31st March, 2021, respectively (hereinafter referred to as the said notifications), the Central Government hereby specifies for the purpose of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act that, - (A) where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Income-tax Act) and, - (a) the completion of any action, referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, relates to passing of any order for assessment or reassessment under the Income-tax Act, and the time limit for completion of such action under section 153 or section 153B thereof, e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (38 of 2020) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), and in partial modification of the notifications of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, (Department of Revenue) No. 93/2020 dated the 31st December, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 4805(E), dated the 31st December, 2020 and No. 10/2021 dated the 27th February, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii),vide number S.O. 966(E) dated the 27th February, 2021 and No. 20/2021 dated the 31st March, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O 1432(E) dated the 31st March, 2021 and No. 38/2021 dated 27 th April, 2021, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 1703(E) dated the 27th April, 2021, (hereinafter referred to as the said notifications), the Central Government hereby specifies for the purpose of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act, that, - (A) where the specified Act is t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... icer shall, upon receipt of the directions issued under sub-section (5), in conformity with the directions, complete the assessment within one month from the end of the month in which such direction is received. Sub-section (13) also provides that the Assessing Officer can complete the assessment without providing any further opportunity of being heard to the assessee. This means that the moment the Assessing Officer receives the directions under sub-section (5), he has to straightaway complete the assessment and he does not even have to hear the assessee. The Assessing Officer shall simply comply with the directions received from the DRP within one month from the end of the month in which such direction is received. 11. Mr. Mistri, Counsel for petitioner, submitted as under:- (a) The three notifications, on which reliance has been placed to complete the assessment, do not extend the time-limit for respondent No.1 to pass the impugned final assessment order under Section 144C(13) of the Act and, therefore, the order dated 30th September 2021 impugned in this petition is clearly without jurisdiction and beyond the time-limit provided under the Act for completion of the assess ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... read with the notifications issued under the said Act. (b) The notifications under the Relaxation Act were issued by the Government of India to mitigate the problems of the tax-payers and the common citizens in general caused by lock-down and restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic. The same yardstick applies to the government officers and officials who were also prevented from working in normal conditions. The Government tried its best to save the citizens including tax-payers and officers of the government departments and hence, the provision should be given a purposive interpretation. (c) Subsequent to the directions issued by DRP on 20th March 2021, the Assessing Officer had to pass the consequential order on or before 30th April 2021. Therefore, the Assessing Officer could have passed the consequential order by 31st March 2021 also. In other words, the Assessing Officer had time from 21st March 2021, having received DRP directions on 20th March 2021, upto 30th April 2021 to pass the consequential order. As per the Notification No.20/2021 of 31st March 2021, the limitation dates were extended to 30th April 2021, thereafter vide Notification No.38/2011 dated 27th April 2 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed in the Act falls for completion of such action, 30th April 2021 shall be the end date to which the time-limit for completion of such action shall stand extended. The notification, therefore, provides that if the time-limit to complete the assessment under Section 144C(13) was expiring on any date upto 31st March 2021, the said date for completion was extended upto 30th April 2021. Since in this case, the time-limit for completion of assessment was not expiring as of 31st March 2021, in our view, Notification No.20/2021 is not applicable. 17. Coming to the applicability of Notification No.38/2021 issued on 27th April 2021, Clause (A) of the notification provides that where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, and the completion of any action referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Relaxation Act, relates to passing of an order under Section 144C(13) of the Act and the time-limit for completion of such action expires on 30th April 2021 due to its extension by earlier notifications , such time-limit shall further stand extended to 30th June 2021. The expiry of time-limit for completion of assessment or for passing the order in petitioner s case unde ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hence, the provisions of Relaxation Act will not be applicable to petitioner s case at all. 21. As far as Mr. Suresh Kumar s submission that the Notification No.74/2021 dated 25th June 2021, to give purposive interpretation the word and used should be read as or as noted in paragraph No.12(d) above, statutes have to be construed in such a way that every word has a place and everything is in its place. If the precise words used are plain and unambiguous, the courts are bound to construe them in the ordinary sense in their judgments. The words of statute are to be first understood in the natural, ordinary or popular sense and phrases and sentences are construed according to their grammatical meaning, unless that leads to some absurdity or unless there is something in the context or in the object of the statute to suggest to the contrary. The reason for doing so is to give effect to the intention of the Parliament. Therefore, by reading the notification as it stands, and not as suggested by Mr. Suresh Kumar, neither does it lead to any absurdity nor does it suggest anything to the contrary. Therefore, we cannot and we should not read the word and as or . 22. Even if for a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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