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2021 (6) TMI 416 - AT - Income TaxValidity of assessment order passed u/s.153A - mandatory approval as required u/s.153D - as argued statutory and mandatory approval as required u/s.153D has not been obtained and the approval sought and granted was totally mechanical and ritualistic only - HELD THAT:- From the said approval u/s 153D, it can be easily inferred that the said order was approved, solely relying upon the implied undertaking obtained from the Assessing Officer in the form of draft assessment order that AO has taken due care while framing respective draft assessment orders and that all the observations made in the appraisal report relating to examination/investigation of seized material and issues unearthed during search have been statedly considered by the AO seeking approval. The sanctioning authority has, in effect, abdicated his statutory functions and delightfully relegated his statutory duty to the subordinate AO, whose action the Additional CIT, was supposed to supervise. ACIT in short appears to have adopted a short cut in the matter and an undertaking from AO was considered adequate by him to accord approval in all assessments involved. Manifestly, the Additional CIT, without any consideration of merits in proposed additions with reference to incriminating material collected in search etc. has proceeded to grant a simplicitor approval. This approach of the Additional CIT, Central has rendered the Approval to be a mere formality and can not be considered as actual approval in law. Hence, we quash the assessment framed u/s. 153A of the Act on this additional ground alone. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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