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2017 (3) TMI 1523 - RAJASTHAN HIGH COURTProcedure for block assessment - time limit entitled to file the return - Held that:- Section 158BC mandates that the Assessing Officer is to serve a notice to such person requiring him to furnish a return in the prescribed form and verified in the manner stipulated. The Assessing Officer must, therefore, serve such a notice, without which an assessee would not be liable to file a return in respect of a block assessment. The assessee is also entitled, as a matter of right, to a period not less than 15 days to file such a return. The Assessing Officer does not have the power to curtail this period. Thus, even if a notice under Section 158BC(a) specifies a period less than 15 days, it would not affect an assessee's right to file a return after a period of 15 days. The present case falls under Section 158BC(a)(ii). In such a case, an assessee would be entitled to file the return within the outer limit prescribed in Section 158BC(a)(ii) namely 45 days. Thus, while it is mandatory for the Assessing Officer to serve a notice requiring the assessee to file a return under Section 158BC and the assessee is entitled to not less than 15 days to file the return, the section does not indicate that if the notice inadvertently prescribes a period less than 15 days, it is void. Much less does the section indicate that the entire block proceedings relating to the block assessment would be void on account thereof. - Decided in favour of the assessee.
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