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2022 (10) TMI 727 - ITAT MUMBAIRectification of mistake - Final assessment order and Dispute Resolution Panel ('DRP) directions passed without application of mind - Dispute Resolution Panel apparently on account of a word-processing cut-paste error, the directions so contained in the DRP‟s order incorporated directions relating to another group concern with a somewhat similar name, i.e. Michael Page International Pte Ltd- as against the assessee i.e. Michael Page International Recruitment Pvt Ltd. - HELD THAT:- DRP Rules prescribes that “After the issue of directions under rule 10, if any mistake or error is apparent in such direction, the panel may, suo motu, or on an application from the eligible assessee or the AO, rectify such mistake or error, and also direct the Assessing Officer to modify the assessment order accordingly”. In the present case, the rectification has been done suo motu and the assessee has taken no objection to the rectification proceeding either. To this extent also, there is no infirmity in the rectification order passed by the learned DRP. Whether the rectification proceedings were carried out well within the permissible time?- AO even as of now, has the powers under section 154 to rectify the impugned assessment order since four years have not yet elapsed from the end of the financial year in which the assessment order was passed. It is so given the legal position under section 154(7), which provides that “save as otherwise provided in section 155 or sub-section (4) of section 186, no amendment under this section (i.e. 154) shall be made after the expiry of four years from the end of the financial year in which the order sought to be amended was passed”. When AO being an income tax authority under section 116, is allowed a certain time frame for the rectification of mistakes apparent on record in his orders, that time frame cannot be diluted, curtailed or otherwise narrowed down by us. It cannot thus be said that no useful purpose will be served by remitting the matter to the file of the AO even at this stage. To that extent, the plea of the assessee is incorrect. Quite contrary to what has been argued by the learned counsel for the assessee, if we are to quash the assessment order, as being urged by the learned counsel, these rectification powers will be preempted in the sense that once the assessment order itself is quashed, there will be nothing left to be rectified, as a consequence to rectification order passed by the DRP, even though the Assessing Officer has the time, permitted under the statute, to rectify the glaring mistake apparent on record in the impugned assessment order passed by him. We deem it fit and proper to reject the assessee's plea seeking quashing of the impugned order. The impugned order is erroneous inasmuch as it does not give effect to the rectification order passed by the Dispute Resolution Panel, and the right course of action to be followed, therefore, is that the impugned assessment order is to be modified, and subjected to rectification of mistake apparent on the record, in the light of rectification order passed by the Dispute Resolution Panel. In our considered view, therefore, the matter deserved to be remitted to the file of the AO for carrying out necessary rectifications of the impugned order by taking rectified and corrected DRP directions into account. Appeal is allowed for statistical purposes
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