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2017 (12) TMI 110 - AT - Income TaxTransfer of case u/s 127 - reason for transferring the entity was not mentioned in the order - deemed service of notice u/s 148 - Held that:- The order dated March 24, 2009 passed by the learned Commissioner of Income-tax Gwalior under section 127 of the Act, the entity centralised with the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax (Central Circle) is M/s. Welcome Coir Industries with permanent account number which pertains to a firm and it was earlier getting assessed with Income-tax Officer 2(2), Gwalior, while the assessee, M/s. Welcome Coir Industries Ltd. is a company having a different permanent account number. Also, in this order, nothing has been discussed as to whether before passing of this order, any reasonable opportunity of being heard was ever given to the concerned entity or not and as per the information collected by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) from the office of the learned Commissioner of Income-tax, Gwalior, it has been found that the order under section 127 of the Act was passed just on the basis of the approval granted by the Chief Commissioner of Income-tax, Bhopal and no opportunity of being heard was given to the assessee before passing of this order. It has also been found that the reason for transferring the case under section 127 of the Act was not mentioned in the order. Further, and importantly, even if the order under section 127 dated March 24, 2009 is considered to be existing even today, as not having been challenged in a court under appropriate proceedings, the Assessing Officer cannot assume jurisdiction on the assessee, M/s. Welcome Coir Industries Ltd. on the strength of this order, because the entity centralised with the Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax/Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax (CC) on the basis of this order is M/s. Welcome Coir Industries, the firm and not M/s. Welcome Coir Industries Ltd., the company, as even admitted by the Assessing Officer in his letter dated April 30, 2012 written to the Joint Commissioner of Income-tax, Central Range, Kanpur. Deemed service of notice under section 292BB does not deal with, nor would cure such jurisdictional defect, i.e., the absence of jurisdiction. As discussed by the learned Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) in paragraph 12.10 of his order, the Assessing Officer claims jurisdiction by virtue of the order dated March 24, 2009 passed under section 127 of the Act, i.e., by way of transfer of jurisdiction. However, the said order has been found to be void ab initio, as the case of the assessee was not centralised thereunder. Thus, the Assessing Officer never acquired jurisdiction over the assessee. Therefore, section 292BB of the Act does not come to the aid of the Department. Compliances would not bestow jurisdiction on the Assessing Officer, once such jurisdiction never lay with the Assessing Officer to begin with. "Acquiance neither confers, nor takes away jurisdiction" is the applicable legal maxim here. Accordingly, this grievance of the Department is rejected as sans merit.
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