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2019 (12) TMI 814 - ITAT AGRAAssessment u/s 153A - no approval in the eye of law, having been granted without application of mind - Faulty approach of the Additional CIT - HELD THAT:- Additional CIT, without any consideration on merit in respect of issues on which addition was made granted the Approval on the undertaking of the AO, in view of stated paucity of time with him for granting Approval.This approach of the Additional CIT, Central has rendered the Approval to be an eyewash and idle formality and such a mechanically granted Approval is no approval in the eyes of law. As rightly pointed out by the Ld. AR that in the facts of case of “AAP Paper Marketing Limited” [2017 (4) TMI 1371 - ITAT LUCKNOW] there may be some justification for the qualified approval in view of the fact that the limitation in that case was getting expired on the day when the draft assessment orders were put up before the Additional CIT, Central Circle, Kanpur for his approval. However, to the disadvantage of the revenue in the case on hands there can be no little justification for qualified approval as the proposal for approval was put up before the Additional CIT on 26.03.2015 and at the same time it was granted, without any application of mind on the pretext that limitation is going to get expired on 31.03.2015. Thus, in the case at hand despite availability of time the Additional CIT taking excuse of limitation has chosen to grant approval without application of his own mind but on the undertaking of the AO that “while completing the assessment as per the draft assessment order, all the observations made in the appraisal report relating to examination/investigation as also the issues identified in the course of examination of seized material have carefully considered.” In our view such a practice is required to be deprecated and we deprecate the same. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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