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2016 (1) TMI 1453 - ITAT MUMBAIAdmission of additional grounds of appeal - This is second round of proceedings - As per additional grounds of appeal raised assessee was directly issued an assessment order, without the issuance of a draft assessment order as required by the scheme of Section 144C - HELD THAT:- The issue being raised by the assessee is a purely legal issue. In view of the law laid down by Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd Vs CIT [1996 (12) TMI 7 - SUPREME COURT ] this issue can indeed be even raised for the first time before this Tribunal. Mere fact that this issue was not taken up in the first round of proceedings does not act to the detriment of the assessee. The issue being raised now is a fundamental legal issue which goes to the root of the matter. If the assessment order itself is a legal nullity, as it is claimed to be, the impugned additions are devoid of any legally sustainable basis.We are, therefore, inclined to admit this claim for adjudication on merits. Regular assessment order without issuance of draft assessment order - What is material is that the original assessment order was in form and in substance a regular assessment order, and not a draft assessment order. DR has also submitted that since the assessee has participated in the proceedings before the DRP, it cannot be open to the assessee to raise this question now. It is only elementary that acquiescence does not confer the jurisdiction, and the only issue which can not be raised subsequently, in the light of the specific provisions of Section 292BB, is objections with regard to service, time or manner of service of a notice. That is not the case before us. In the case of Inventors Industrial Corp [1991 (4) TMI 70 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] as well, the assessee had duly participated in the reassessment proceedings and yet, in the second round of proceedings, the objections were taken to the validity of reassessment itself. In this view of the matter, and in the light of the above discussions, we uphold the grievance of the assessee and quash the impugned assessment order itself. The issuance of a regular assessment order, without issuance of draft assessment order, was an illegality, but once a regular assessment order was so framed, it was also no longer open to the Assessing Officer to issue a corrigendum or the draft assessment order after issuance of the regular assessment order.
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