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2022 (9) TMI 78 - AT - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - failure to provide the copy of recording of "reason to believe" to the assessee - HELD THAT:- AO in view of the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of GKN Driveshafts (India) Ltd. [2002 (11) TMI 7 - SUPREME COURT] was required to provide the copy of reasons to the assessee before completion of assessment which he did not do and supplied only in the month of January, 2019 whereas the assessment was completed on 19/12/2018. As regards the second argument of D. R. that the assessee applied for providing copy of reasons only in the month of January by depositing fee in January, 2019, we find that there is no fee prescribed under the Act for obtaining copy of reasons as is borne out from the provisions of section 147 & 148 - Providing of reasons recorded has not been mentioned in any of the sections connected with the reopening of the cases and it is only the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court which requires that before completion of assessment proceedings, the AO is required to provide copy of reasons to the assessee. The judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court is binding on the Department as well as on assessee. AO was required to provide copy of reasons recorded before completion of assessment which he did not do. Reiterating the importance of providing copy of reasons to the assessee, in the case of Mithlesh Kumar Tripathi [2005 (11) TMI 28 - ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT] has held that if the reasons are supplied along with the notice u/s 148(2) of the Act, it shall obviate unnecessary harassment to the assessee as well to Revenue by avoiding unnecessary litigation. This is undisputed fact that the assessee, vide letter dated 07/12/2018, enclosed the acknowledgement of ITR in compliance to notice u/s 148 and also required the Assessing Officer to communicate to the assessee the copy of reasons recorded in terms of law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in GKN Driveshafts (India) Ltd. and which the AO supplied only after completion of assessment therefore, the assessment order is bad in law and is void ab initio. Various courts, including Hon'ble Supreme Court, in a number of cases have held that copy of reasons recorded has to be provided to assessee before completion of assessment order. We find that CIT(A) has rightly accepted the contention of the assessee and after relying on number of case laws, decided the issue in favour of the assessee.
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