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TMI Blog2024 (8) TMI 187X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion dated 29 March, 2022 issued by the Central Government. As fairly conceded on behalf of the revenue, the challenge in the proceedings would stand covered by the decision of this Court in Hexaware Technologies Ltd. ( 2024 (5) TMI 302 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] . The impugned notices would be required to be held to be illegal and invalid as and there is no dispute that the JAO had no jurisdiction to issue the impugned notice. We, accordingly, allow this petition in favour of assessee. - G. S. KULKARNI SOMASEKHAR SUNDARESAN, JJ. For the Petitioner : Mr. Nishit Gandhi, Advocate. For Respondents : Mr. Ravi Rattesar, Advocate. PC : 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Learned Counsel for the Respondents waives service. By consent of the partie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . It is now well settled that for a notice to be validly issued for reassessment under Section 148 of the Act, the Respondent-Revenue would need to be compliant with Section 151A, which has been interpreted and analysed in detail by a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Hexaware Technologies Limited Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax 4 Ors. (2024) 464 ITR 430 ( Hexaware ). The Division Bench has clearly declared the law as follows : 35 Further, in our view, there is no question of concurrent jurisdiction of the JAO and the FAO for issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act or even for passing assessment or reassessment order. When specific jurisdiction has been assigned to either the JAO or the FAO in the Scheme dated 29t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provides that the Scheme so framed is applicable only to the extent provided in Section 144B of the Act and Section 144B of the Act does not refer to issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act and hence, the notice cannot be issued by the FAO as per the said Scheme, we express our view as follows:- Section 151A of the Act itself contemplates formulation of Scheme for both assessment, reassessment or recomputation under Section 147 as well as for issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act. Therefore, the Scheme framed by the CBDT, which covers both the aforesaid aspect of the provisions of Section 151A of the Act cannot be said to be applicable only for one aspect, i.e., proceedings post the issue of notice under Section 148 of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by following the procedure prescribed by law. Therefore, when the Income Tax Authority proposes to take action against an assessee without following the due process of law, the said action itself results in a prejudice to assessee. Therefore, there is no question of petitioner having to prove further prejudice before arguing the invalidity of the notice. [Emphasis Supplied] 5. Therefore, it is apparent that the Respondent-Revenue is not in compliance with the Scheme notified by the Central Government pursuant to Section 151A (2) of the Act. The Scheme has also been tabled in Parliament and is in the character of subordinate legislation, which governs the conduct of proceedings under Section 148A as well as Section 148 of the Act. In view o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... which, in turn, relied on the decision in Siemens Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Circle 8 (2)(1), Mumbai Ors. (Writ Petition No.4888 of 2022), would squarely apply to the facts of the case. 8. In the light of the above discussion, as there is no dispute that the JAO had no jurisdiction to issue the impugned notice, and for the reason that the sanction for reassessment was not sanctioned by a legally authorised officer, the Writ Petition is accordingly allowed. 9. In this view of the matter, we quash the reassessment proceedings in their entirety on the aforesaid two grounds namely, noncompliance with Section 151 as well as Section 151A of the Act. Consequently, the Petition is allowed in terms of prayer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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