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2021 (3) TMI 798 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - case of the department that it is in receipt of specific information that the writ applicant is involved in the accommodation entries through the Venus Group - stance of the writ applicant before the Assessing Officer while putting forward his objections to the impugned notice was that the writ applicant had actually received loan during the F.Y. 2011-12 and 2012-13 i.e. A.Y. 2012-13 and 2013-14. During the A.Y. 2015-16, the said loan was repaid in installments through the RTGS - whether the impugned notice of reopening issued under Section 148 of the Act should be quashed and set aside ? - HELD THAT:- Assessing Officer while disposing of the objections stated that the objections raised by the writ applicant would be examined at the time of reassessment proceedings. The Assessing Officer failed to assign any good reason why there was no merit in any of the objections raised by the writ applicant to the notice of the reopening. We are of the view that the Assessing Officer failed to exercise his jurisdiction vested in him for the purpose of dealing with the objections raised by the writ applicant. On receipt of the reasons, the noticee is entitled to file his objections and the Assessing Officer, in turn, is obliged to dispose of the objections by passing a speaking order. Though the Assessing Officer had an opportunity at the stage of dealing with the objections to verify the contention of the writ applicant, which went to the root of the matter, he very conveniently ignored the issue by taking a stance that the factual proposition would be examined at the time of reassessment proceedings after giving sufficient opportunity to the assessee. Such stance of the Assessing Officer leads this Court to prima facie believe that the Assessing Officer had no good reason to issue the impugned notice for reopening. Had the Assessing Officer been more pro-active, he would have realized upon looking into the objections raised by the writ applicant that issuing notice for the assessment year 2015-16 could be a mistake. The aforesaid aspects prima facie leave us to note that the Assessing Officer had no material to suggest that the writ applicant had made payment in cash to Sanjeet Motor Finance Pvt. Ltd. and thereafter, received the same amount back through the RTGS. We may also refer to and rely upon the observations made by a Coordinate Bench of this Court in the case of Pal Gram Hindu Sarvajanik Trust [2016 (4) TMI 311 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT]. We are of the view that we should quash and set aside the order disposing of the objections passed by the Assessing Officer and remit the matter to the Assessing Officer for fresh consideration of the objections raised by the assessee. This writ application succeeds in part. The order passed by the Assessing Officer disposing of the objections dated 10.09.2018 is hereby quashed and set aside. The matter is remitted to the Assessing Officer for fresh consideration of the objections in accordance with law.
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