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TMI Blog2025 (3) TMI 454X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent to note that in the present case, the time period covered under the provisions of the TOLA only includes 30.03.2020, i.e., 4 years from the end of the relevant assessment year, as the period of 6 year from the end of the relevant assessment year expired on 30.03.2022, which is beyond the period from 20.03.2020 to 31.03.2021. We find that while examining the validity of notices issued from 01.04.2021 to 30.06.2021 under the old regime, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal [2024 (10) TMI 264 - SUPREME COURT (LB)], analysing the interplay of Ashish Agarwal [2022 (5) TMI 240 - SUPREME COURT] with the TOLA held that the surviving time under the Act read with the TOLA will be available to the Revenue to complete the remaining proceedings in furtherance of the deemed notice, including issuance of re-assessment notice under section 148 of the Act under the new regime. We find that the Revenue had only 15 days (i.e., between 16.06.2021 to 30.06.2021) to issue notice under section 148 of the Act of the new regime in the present case, i.e. till 25.06.2022, after receipt of the response from the assessee to the show cause notice under section 148A(b) of the Act on 10.06.2022. Howev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on appeal against an order dated 12/03/2024 passed by Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal), National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi on following amongst other grounds each of which are without prejudice to any other:- 1.0 On facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the order passed u/s. 148A(d) and notice u/s. 148 issued beyond 3 years from end of the assessment year are bad-in-law, since the sanction had not been obtained by current specified authority prescribed u/s. 151(ii) of the Act; 2.0 On facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the order passed u/s. 148A(d) and notice issued u/s. 148 are bad-in-law, since had been issued in violation to Sec.151A by Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) and had not been issued by the Faceless Assessing Officer (FAO), thereby consequential reassessment order passed u/s. 147 is void-ab-initio." 4. The assessee has also raised the following additional ground in its Cross Objection: - "The assessee prefers an additional ground in the Cross Objection filed against the Order dated 12/03/2024 passed by Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal), National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi on following ground:- 1.0 On facts and cir ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se notice dated 30.05.2022, the information and material relied upon by the Revenue was provided to the assessee and time was granted to the assessee to respond within two weeks in terms of the provisions of section 148A(b) of the Act. 9. After rejecting the objections filed by the assessee, an order under section 148A(d) of the Act was passed on 29.07.2022 declaring that it is a fit case for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act. Thereafter, on 29.07.2022, notice under section 148 of the Act was issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer. The assessment order was passed under section 147 r.w. section 144B of the Act, assessing the total income of the assessee at Rs. 99,19,531/-, after making an addition of Rs. 92,77,751/- under sections 69A and 69C of the Act. The learned CIT(A), vide impugned order, allowed the appeal filed by the assessee on merits and deleted the additions made by the AO. 10. During the hearing, the learned AR submitted that the year under consideration is assessment year 2015-16, and therefore, the limitation period available with the Assessing Officer under section 149 of the Act for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act is till 31.0 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sessment year 2015-16, all notices issued on or after 1st April, 2021 will have to be dropped as they will not fall for completion during the period prescribed under the TOLA. We find that the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in Pratishtha Garg vs. ACIT, reported in (2015) 171 taxmann.com 264 (Delhi), allowed the writ petition filed by the taxpayer and set aside the notice issued under section 148 of the Act for the assessment year 2015-16, by observing as follows: - "2. Learned counsel for the Revenue fairly states that the prayers made by the petitioner are required to be allowed as the same are covered by the concession made by the Revenue before the Supreme Court in Union of India and Others v. Rajeev Bansal: 2024 SCC OnLine SC 2693, 2024 INSC 754, as recorded in paragraph 19 (f) of the said decision. He also submits that the Coordinate Bench of this Court had, after not ing the aforesaid concession, allowed a similar petition - Ibibo Group Pvt. Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Circle: W.P.(C) 17639/2022 by order dated 13.12.2024. 3. It is relevant to note paragraph 19 (e) and (f) of the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India and Others v. Rajeev Bansal; 2024 S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ices issued under section 148 of the Act for the assessment year 2015-16 were quashed: - * ACIT vs. Manish Financials, ITA No.5050 and 5055/Mum/2024 order dated 02.12.2024. * ITO vs. Pushpak Realities Pvt. Ltd., ITA No.4812/mum/2024, order dated 07.09.2024. 14. However, in the present case, the Revenue has raised contention completely contrary to its submission made before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal (supra). As is evident from paragraph 19(f) of the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Revenue conceded that for the assessment year 2015-16 all the notices issued on or after 1st April, 2021 will have to be dropped as they will not fall for completion during the extended period prescribed under the TOLA. Therefore, though the issue under consideration has been settled in favour of the assessee by the decisions of higher judicial forums, however, since, in the present case, the Revenue has taken stand contrary to the one taken before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, we have tested the submissions of the learned DR, made vide its written submission dated 06.01.2025, in the subsequent paragraphs of this order, in the light of the decisions of the Hon'ble Supreme Cour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... otice under section 148 shall be issued at any time in a case for the relevant assessment year beginning on or before 1st day of April, 2021, if such notice could not have been issued at that time on account of being beyond the time limit specified under the provisions of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of this section, as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2021: Provided further that the provisions of this sub-section shall not apply in a case, where a notice under section 153A, or section 153C read with section 153A, is required to be issued in relation to a search initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets requisitioned under section 132A, on or before the 31st day of March, 2021: Provided also that for the purposes of computing the period of limitation as per this section, the time or extended time allowed to the assessee, as per show cause notice issued under clause (b) of section 148A or the period during which the proceeding under section 148A is stayed by an order or injunction of any court, shall be excluded: Provided also that where immediately after the exclusion of the period referred to in the imme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... side India, chargeable to tax, has escaped assessment. Explanation.- In determining income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment for the purposes of this sub-section, the provisions of Explanation 2 of section 147 shall apply as they apply for the purposes of that section. (2) The provisions of sub-section (1) as to the issue of notice shall be subject to the provisions of section 151. (3) If the person on whom a notice under section 148 is to be served is a person treated as the agent of a non-resident under section 163 and the assessment, reassessment or recomputation to be made in pursuance of the notice is to be made on him as the agent of such non-resident, the notice shall not be issued after the expiry of a period of six years from the end of the relevant assessment year. Explanation.- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (3), as amended by the Finance Act, 2012, shall also be applicable for any assessment year beginning on or before the 1st day of April, 2012." 18. From the plain reading of Section 149 of the Act, prior to its amendment by the Finance Act, 2021, it is evident that the same provides ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re reproduced as follows for ready reference: - "Exclusion of Time for Compliance with Section 148A Legal Basis for Excluding Show-Cause and Reply Period * Both Ashish Agarwal and Rajeev Bansal clarify that the period between the date of "deemed show-cause notice" (the old notice) and the actual issuance of notice under Section 148A(b), plus the time granted to the assessee for filing a response, shall be excluded from any limitation computation. The relevant extracts of the decision of the Hon'ble SC in the case of Rajeev Bansal is reproduced below: 106.... To summarize, the combined effect of the legal fiction and the directions issued by this Court in Ashish Agarwal (supra) is that the show cause notices that were deemed to have been issued during the period between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021 were stayed till the date of supply of the relevant information and material by the assessing officer to the assessee. After the supply of the relevant material and information to the assessee, time begins to run for the assesses to respond to the show cause notices. 107. The third proviso to Section 149 allows the exclusion of time allowed for the assesses to respond to th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he consequences and incidents that will inevitably flow from the fiction. 163 Therefore, the logical effect of the creation of the legal fiction by Ashish Agarwal (supra) is that the time surviving under the Income Tax Act read with TOLA will be available to the Revenue to complete the remaining proceedings in furtherance of the deemed notices, including issuance of reassessment notices under Section 148 of the new regime. The surviving or balance time limit can be calculated by computing the number of days between the date of issuance of the deemed notice and 30 June 2021." 21. Thus, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that the surviving time under the Act read with the TOLA will be available to the Revenue to complete the remaining proceedings in furtherance of the deemed notice, including issuance of re-assessment notice under section 148 of the Act under the new regime. While explaining the methodology for computation of the surviving or balance time limit, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in paragraph 112 of Rajeev Bansal (supra) observed as follows: - "112. Let us take the instance of a notice issued on 1 May 2021 under the old regime for a relevant assessment year. Because of the leg ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsidered view that the notice under section 148 of the Act in the present case was issued beyond the time period provided under the Act. Thus, de hors the concession of the Revenue before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal (supra), which has been objected to by the learned DR in the present case, we are of the considered view that in the facts and circumstances of the present case, as considered in-detail in the foregoing paragraphs, the notice issued under section 148 of the Act on 29.07.2022 is barred by limitation period specified under section 149 of the Act. Accordingly, we are of the considered view that notice issued under section 148 of the Act on 29.07.2022 is void ab initio and bad in law. Therefore, the same is quashed. Consequently, the entire re-assessment proceedings and assessment order passed under section 147 r.w. section 144B of the Act are also quashed. 24. Since the relief has been granted to the assessee on the afore-noted judicial aspect, the other grounds raised by the assessee in its Cross objection on jurisdiction are rendered academic, and therefore, are left open. 25. Accordingly, the appeal by the Revenue on merits has been rendered academic, a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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