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2020 (5) TMI 654 - AT - Income TaxValidity of the reassessment proceedings - approval by the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax - HELD THAT:- The material facts of the present case being identical inasmuch as the reopening, beyond any doubt or controversy, is entirely based on the Hon’ble Justice M B Shah Commission report, as in the case that SESA STERLITE LTD [2019 (8) TMI 16 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] were dealing with, the ratio of the aforesaid judgment clearly applies on the facts of this case. As a plain look at the reasons recorded for reopening the assessment, as also for the approval by the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, the only basis for reopening of the present assessment, as in the judgment cited above, was report submitted by Hon’ble Justice M B Shah Commission report. Respectfully following the binding judicial precedent, extracts from which are extensively reproduced above, we must hold that the initiation of reassessment proceeding itself, on the facts of this case as evidenced by the reasons recorded by the AO, is unsustainable in law. We, therefore, quash the reassessment proceedings. Order pronounced after ninety (90) days of hearing - COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown ordered by GOI - HELD THAT:- This period of lockdown cannot be treated as an ordinary period during which the normal time limits are to remain in force. In our considered view, even without the words “ordinarily”, in the light of the above analysis of the legal position, the period during which lockout was in force is to excluded for the purpose of time limits set out in rule 34(5) of the Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1963. Viewed thus, the exception, to 90-day time-limit for pronouncement of orders, inherent in rule 34(5)(c), with respect to the pronouncement of orders within ninety days, clearly comes into play in the present case. Of course, there is no, and there cannot be any, bar on the discretion of the benches to refix the matters for clarifications because of considerable time lag between the point of time when the hearing is concluded and the point of time when the order thereon is being finalized, but then, in our considered view, no such exercise was required to be carried out on the facts of this case.
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