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2022 (2) TMI 1141 - AT - Income TaxValidity of Reopening of assessment u/s 147 - Second set of reassessment proceeding - assessee had failed to explain the source of the cash deposit in his bank account - HELD THAT:- Now when the reassessment proceedings were initiated by the A.O, i.e, ITO, Ward-5(2), Amritsar, vide Notice u/s 148, dated 29.03.2016, for bringing to tax the unexplained cash deposits in the assessee’s bank account that as per him had escaped assessment (which thereafter had culminated into an assessment u/s 147 r.w.s 143(3), dated 08.11.2016), he was clearly divested of his jurisdiction from initiating another set of reassessment proceeding, i.e, the impugned reassessment proceeding in question by issuing another Notice u/s 148, dated 29.03.2016, on the ground, that the assessee had failed to prove the source of cash deposit in his another bank A/c. The reassessment proceedings initiated by the A.O, vide the impugned Notice u/s 148, dated 29.03.2016, i.e, during the pendency of the other reassessment proceeding for the year under consideration, cannot be sustained. We, thus, are unable to persuade ourselves to subscribe to the validity of the reassessment proceedings, i.e, the proceedings that had culminated into the impugned assessment order u/s 144 r.w.s 147, dated 27.12.2016. Valid sanction/approval as contemplated in sub-section (1) of section 151 - Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax-II, Amritsar despite the aforesaid serious infirmity, wherein the AO, i.e, ITO, Ward-5(2), Amritsar had on the same day, i.e, 28.03.2016 approached hi for his sanction/approval for taking recourse to parallel reassessment proceedings against the assessee, i.e, for the same year and, he had in a most mechanical manner, on the same day, i.e, on 28.03.2016 granted his sanction/approval as contemplated in sub-section (1) of section 151 of the Act, i.e, for both the reassessment proceedings that were taken recourse to by the A.O. On a perusal of the sanction granted by the Pr. Commissioner Of Income Tax-II, Amritsar, we find that on both the occasions the same has been granted by him in a mechanical manner by simply scribbling. Manner in which the approval/sanction had been granted by the Pr. Commissioner of Income-tax-II, Amritsar, we may herein observe, that the same in the backdrop of the facts involved in the case before us, i.e., granting of sanction/approval by him to the parallel set of reassessment proceedings initiated by the AO, on the same date, and for the same year, therein clearly reveals the non-application of mind by him. While sanctioning the issuance of the second Notice u/s 148, dated 29.03.2016, which as observed by hereinabove had culminated into the impugned assessment order u/s 144 r.w.s 147, dated 27.12.2016, there is no reference or mention about the approval/sanction that was already granted by him on the earlier occasion, and the same therein leads to serious doubts as regards application of mind by him at the time of grant of approval to the impugned reasons to believe - we are of a strong conviction that the sanctioning authority, i.e, the Pr. Commissioner of Income-tax-II, Amritsar had granted his sanction u/s 151 of the Act, in a mechanical manner, i.e, without application of mind to the facts of the case and the material available on record. Thus neither able to concur with the lower authorities as regards the validity of the reassessment order passed by the AO u/s 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act, dated 27.12.2016, for the reason, that the same were initiated at a point of time when reassessment proceeding vide another Notice u/s 148, dated 29/03/2016, i.e, as regards the unexplained cash deposits already stood triggered and were pending at the relevant point of time and, had thereafter culminated into an assessment u/s 147 r.w.s 143(3), dated 08.11.2016; nor are able to persuade ourselves to subscribe to the mechanical manner in which the approval under sub-section (1) of Sec. 151 of the Act had been granted by the approving authority, i.e., the Pr. Commissioner of Income-tax-II, Amritsar, therefore, quash the impugned assessment order passed by the AO u/s 144 r.w.s 147 - Decided in favour of assessee.
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